Emmett Duffy
Emmett Duffy is an ecologist with expertise in marine biological
diversity—from evolutionary origins, through the interactions
among species and environment that maintain diverse
ecosystems, to understanding how and why biodiversity is
important to human society.
Dr. Duffy’s long-term research addresses how environmental
change affects the complex interactions among marine animals
and plants, and how these translate into the natural services
humanity depends on. He founded and currently leads the global
Zostera Experimental Network (ZEN, www.zenscience.org),
funded by the National Science Foundation and involving seven
countries, exploring how nutrient pollution and altered foodwebs influence the world’s economically important but
threatened seagrass meadows.
Dr. Duffy is also known for his ground-breaking discovery of advanced social colonies in
tropical shrimp, for which he was awarded Japan’s inaugural Kobe Prize in Marine Biology in
2011. He is the author of over 100 articles and an edited volume on crustacean social biology,
and his research has been featured in the BBC’s Blue Planet series, in textbooks, and in media
outlets worldwide. He was awarded an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship in 2006, and has
since co-led major synthetic efforts to put biodiversity science to work in informing public policy
and education/awareness. These include a 2012 international consensus document in Nature
linking biodiversity to ecosystem health, the first ever inclusion of ocean ecosystems in the
quadrennial US National Climate Assessment, and an interagency group envisioning a national
marine biodiversity observation network.
Dr. Duffy holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has held
research fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution and the University of California, Davis. He is
currently the Loretta and Lewis Glucksman Professor of Marine Science and head of the Marine
Biodiversity Lab at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science,
where he has taught since 1994. He blogs on ocean-related topics at www.theseamonster.net.
J. Emmett Duffy
The College of William and Mary
School of Marine Science & Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Gloucester Point, VA 23062-1346, USA
Phone: 804-684-7369
FAX: 804-684-7293
Website: http://www.vims.edu/research/units/labgroups/marine_biodiversity/
Email: jeduffy@vims.edu
Zostera Experimental Network (ZEN): www.zenscience.org
The SeaMonster blog: www.theseamonster.net