Dr. Paul H. Yancey

Biography

Paul is a marine animal physiologist at Whitman Collegeexternal link, where he is a Professor of Biology and the Carl E. Peterson Endowed Chair of Sciencesexternal link. He teaches undergraduate courses in marine biology (for both biology and non-science majors), animal physiology, bioethics (including environmental ethics), and directed research. His students work with him in his marine research projects (including many deep-sea research expeditions, some with the Alvin submersibleexternal link) and he has won several teaching awards. He has also helped lead eco-trips for Whitman alumni to the Washington and Oregon coasts and Costa Rica. In 1997, he developed the first website on deep-sea biologyexternal link for the general public, a site which continues to be popular. Paul has been an avid lover of marine life since childhood, inspired by watching Jacques Cousteau on television, by many family beach vacations in California and Baja California, and an undergraduate invertebrate zoology course at Catalina Marine Station. His Ph.D. research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanographyexternal link with Dr. George Someroexternal link involved osmotic adaptations of elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and temperature and pH effects on marine fishes from polar regions to the tropics (well before we knew about ocean warming and acidification). His work on marine osmotic adaptations quickly led to a revolutionary shift in our understanding of mammalian/human kidney function, and later to a major new theory on how animals survive high pressure in the deep sea. After Scripps, Paul then worked at the University of St. Andrewsexternal link (Scotland) and the Plymouth Marine Laboratoryexternal link (England) before joining Whitman College. Since then, during summers and sabbaticals, he has worked at the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Centerexternal link; the National Institutes of Healthexternal link; the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratoryexternal link; Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Stationexternal link; Louisiana State Universityexternal link; the University of Otagoexternal link (New Zealand), University of Hawai'i (Oceanography Departmentexternal link and Institute of Marine Biologyexternal link), and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Instituteexternal link.

Research Interest

Paul's research specialty continues to focus on effects on marine animals of environmental stresses, including not only osmotic, temperature, and pH, but also sulfide (at hydrocarbon seepsexternal link and hydrothermal ventsexternal link) and pressure in the deep sea. With corals increasingly under threat from temperature and pH changes, he and his collaborators are now working on coral reef conservation projects in Hawai'i and Yucatan, Mexico. Due to his osmotic discoveries, he also occasionally joins medical research teams studying not only basic kidney processes but also diabetes and cystic fibrosis. He has co-authored numerous scientific papers and a textbook on Animal Physiologyexternal link. He has given scientific talks throughout the US, and in Canada, the U.K., Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Botswana and Brazil; his students have given research presentations in the U.S., Russia, France, Australia and Iceland.