Marcia McNutt

Marcia McNutt is a geophysicist and the first female president of the National Academy of Sciences, the esteemed nonprofit founded in 1863 for research in STEM. In this role, she uses the Academy's resources to promote research in, and understanding of, climate change, AI and misinformation. In 2023, Forbes magazine named her her to its "50 Over 50" Innovation list.

Previously, Dr. McNutt was the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Science; science adviser to the United States Secretary of the Interior from 2010 to 2013; and also the first woman to direct the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which responded to a number of major disasters during her tenure, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For her work to help contain that spill, Dr. McNutt was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Meritorious Service Medal.

Before working for USGS, Dr. McNutt was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, an oceanographic research center in the United States; professor of marine geophysics at both the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences and at University of California, Santa Cruz; and professor of geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has participated in 15 oceanographic expeditions in her lifetime.

Dr. McNutt is a fellow of AGU, the Geological Society of America, AAAS and the International Association of Geodesy. Her honors and awards include membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as honorary doctoral degrees from Colorado College, the University of Minnesota, Monmouth University and the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. McNutt was awarded the Macelwane Medal by AGU for research accomplishments by a young scientist and the Maurice Ewing Medal for her significant contributions to deep-sea exploration.