Rebecca Vega Thurber

• Professor of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology; Director of the Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara

I am a Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology and the Director of the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. My lab investigates the role and dynamics of bacteria and viruses in marine hosts and habitats in order to better understand and mitigate or prevent the proximate causes of marine disease, habitat degradation, and ecosystem alteration. I have been a Senior Editor of the flagship journal The International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal (ISMEJ) and now am the Editor and Chief of the new fully free journal Open Advances in Marine Biology, PeerJ.

I am an author of over 110 scientific publications, including 5 book chapters, and her collective work has been cited over 25,000 times to date. My lab has been awarded over $7.3 million dollars in funding, and I have trained 11 postdoctoral researchers, 13 PhD students, and 30 undergraduates. In 2024, I received the International Coral Reef Society's Mid-Career Scientist Award for outstanding scholarship and mentoring.

I am committed to communicating science to broader audiences including the production of a multilingual cartoon series and a full-length documentary on coral reef decline entitled, Saving Atlantis. I have spoken on Capitol Hill and has been a featured speaker at national and international meetings. Through these platforms, I hope to influence the public discourse on marine conservation and its importance to biodiversity, local economies, and cultural preservation.

I graduated from UC Santa Cruz, in 1999, with dual degrees in Marine Biology and Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology. I received her PhD from Stanford University in Biological Sciences in 2005. I conducted her NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (PFRB) at San Diego State University with Dr. Forest Rohwer from 2006 to 2009. I have since been a professor at Florida International University, Oregon State University and now UC Santa Barbara.

• –present Professor of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology; Director of the Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara

• 2005 Stanford University, PhD

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