Valerie Paul

2025 Sigma Xi Fellow

For her pioneering and sustained contributions to marine chemical ecology and coral reef science and for her leadership as Director of the Smithsonian Marine Station and service on national scientific committees addressing harmful algae and ecosystem health.

Statement

“I am truly honored and excited about being selected as a Fellow of Sigma Xi. The notification email I received was a big surprise. I greatly appreciate and support the mission of Sigma Xi ‘to enhance the health of the research enterprise, foster integrity in science and engineering, and promote the public understanding of science for the purpose of improving the human condition’.  I am proud to have been a member of Sigma Xi since 1993.”

Biography

Dr. Valerie Paul has been the Director and Head Scientist of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida since 2002. She received her Ph.D. in Marine Biology in 1985 from the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and then served on the faculty of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory from 1985-2002. In Guam, Valerie built a research program focused on marine chemical ecology and coral reef studies.

Her ongoing research interests include marine cyanobacteria and algal blooms, coral reef ecology, marine chemical ecology and marine natural products. She is the author or co-author of over 370 scientific research publications. Valerie was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996. In 2019, she was selected as the Silver Medal Award recipient recognizing career achievement by the International Society of Chemical Ecology.

In 2020, she received the Paul J. Scheuer Award in Marine Natural Products. Her work on coral reefs has been recognized with the Eminence in Research Award from the International Coral Reef Society in 2020.