Jim Carlton

Jim is Professor of Marine Sciences Emeritus at Williams College. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in Ecology, and was a postdoctoral scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. His research is on global marine bioinvasions (their ecosystem impacts, dispersal mechanisms, and management strategies) and on marine extinctions in modern times. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Biological Invasions. He is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, a Distinguished Research Fellow of the University of California, and a Duke University Conservation Scholar. He was the first scientist to receive the federal government’s Interagency Recognition Award for his national and international work to reduce the impacts of exotic invasions in the sea. He was Co-Chair of the Marine Biodiversity Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, which produced Understanding Marine Biodiversity: A Research Agenda for the Nation. Jim has testified nine times before the United States Congress (Senate and House subcommittees) concerning legislation involving invasive species in his capacity as an expert in the field. Jim was featured in the nationally broadcast PBS-National Geographic series “Strange Days on Planet Earth,” is annually heard on NPR, and was named by the Smithsonian Institution as an “Ocean Hero.” Jim is committed to a curriculum that inspires undergraduates to pursue integrated investigations in the field of maritime studies.