Dr. Nancy Knowlton

Dr. Nancy Knowlton is a distinguished author, public speaker, marine scientist and conservation biologist who has dived on coral reefs around the world. Her discovery of why some corals are more sensitive to high temperatures continues to shape efforts to protect reefs from the effects of global warming. Dr. Knowlton’s many honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the International Coral Reef Society’s Darwin Medal. She currently serves on the global Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy.

Dr. Knowlton spent much of her career at the Smithsonian, first at the Tropical Research Institute in Panama and then at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.  She was also a professor at Yale and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, where she founded the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. Her pioneering recognition of the limits of “doom and gloom” messaging led to the “Beyond the Obituaries” symposia, the #OceanOptimism Twitter campaign, and the Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism Summits. These initiatives helped shift the focus towards solutions and successes across the global conservation community, a goal that she continues to pursue in her writings, talks, and on social media (@nancyknowlton.bsky.social).