Dr. Dee Boersma
Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science, Professor
Download Dr. Boersma’s full CV (PDF)
Dr. Boersma is the Director of the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels at the University of Washington in the Department of Biology and holds the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science. Fieldwork has always been her passion, and her work spans 5 decades. In the 1970’s she started working with Galápagos penguins to determine how many there were, and now is trying to expand their population by providing high quality nests. Fork-tailed storm-petrels in Alaska kept her busy for a decade, and her Magellanic penguins studies in Argentina continued for over 40 years. She enjoys the penguin colony because it is noisy, bustling with activity, is over 100 miles from the nearest city, and often internet free. Dr. Boersma’s studies helped move tanker lanes farther offshore to decrease the number of penguins swimming through petroleum and informed legislation for Marine Protected areas in the Province of Chubut, Argentina. In 2020 she endowed the Boersma Chair in Natural History and Conservation in the Center for Ecosystem Sentinel to ensure a place for long-term conservation studies at the university.
Dr. Boersma has received the Elliot Coues Award, the Heinz Award for the Environment, the Pacific Seabird Group Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize three times. In February 2024, she was awarded the Godman-Salvin Prize as a signal honor for her distinguished ornithological work.
Recent publications
Latest news
-
Dee speaks about the ERA at the Nixon Library
Dee took part in a panel during “Celebrating Women’s Impact” on March 15 2024 at the Nixon Library, in honor of Pat Nixon’s 112th birthday and Women’s History Month. The full event was live streamed, and can be watched on YouTube. Dee’s specific panel can be found in this video.
-
Center paper finalist for Cozzarelli Prize
The paper “Climate presses and pulses mediate the decline of a migratory predator”,” published last year ” is the finalist for the Cozzarelli Prize in the category Class VI: Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Congrats to former Abrahms Lab postdoc Dr.T. J. Clark-Wolf, Dr. Dee Boersma, Dr. Ginger A. Rebstock, and Dr. Briana Abrahms!…
-
Dr. Dee Boersma awarded Godman Salvin Prize
Dr. Dee Boersma received the British Ornithological Union’s Godman Salvin Prize on February 23, 2024, during the Pacific Seabird Group’s annual conference banquet. The Godman Salvin Prize is awarded by BOU Council to honor an individual’s distinguished ornithological work. Recent Godman Salvin Prize recipients include Professor Cao Lei (2023), Professor Nick Davies (2022) and Professor…