Margaret Leinen was appointed the director of the highly regarded Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. She also will serve as dean of the School of Marine Sciences and vice provost of the university for marine sciences. Dr. Leinen has been serving as associate provost of marine and environmental initiatives and executive director of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, a unit of Florida Atlantic University located in Fort Pierce. Previously, she served for nearly a decade at the National Science Foundation and earlier was dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.
Dr. Leinen is the founder and past president of the Climate Response Fund and a past president of The Oceanography Society. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Dr. Leinen holds a master’s degree in geological oceanography from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.