Lynne D. Talley

Biosketch

Lynne Talley is a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

Prior to joining Scripps, Talley was a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University in Corvallis, a PhD student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, and a physics major at Oberlin College. Her research combines analysis of ocean observations with theoretical work to describe and map large-scale circulation, and understand the ocean’s role in climate. Talley has led numerous research cruises and is continuously active in steering groups for collection and use of oceanographic data. She is the lead author of a graduate level textbook on descriptive physical oceanography.

She was a lead author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group I chapter “Observations: Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level,” which was released in 2007, and on the same topic for the Fifth Assessment Report, released in 2013.

She was elected a member of the NAS in 2024, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017, a fellow of the Oceanography Society in 2010, a fellow of the AMS in 2008, a fellow of the AGU in 2006, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. She was awarded the Rosenstiel Award (University of Miami) in 2001, the Huntsman Award (Bedford Institute of Oceanography) in 2003, the Henry Stommel Research Award (Meteorological Society) in 2017, the Fridtjof Nansen Award (European Geosciences Union) in 2017, and the Prince Albert I Medal (IAPSO) in 2017.

Research Interests

Talley’s research focuses on the general circulation of the ocean and the role of various oceanic and atmospheric conditions that affect ocean currents and property distributions, and the role of the ocean in climate. Her work involves analysis of data from most of the world’s oceans, depicting the movement of heat, salinity, and water masses, and the formation of water masses, particularly in subpolar regions. Her particular emphases over the last decade have been Southern Ocean processes and installation and analysis of a global biogeochemical profiling float array as part of an NSF-funded team.