Patricia Matrai

Patricia Ana Matrai is a marine scientist known for her work on the cycling of sulfur. She is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

Education and career
Matrai is originally from Chile. Matria has a B.A. from the Universidad de Concepción (1981), an M.S. (1984) and a Ph.D. (1988) from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego. Following her Ph.D. she moved to the University of Miami. She became a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in 1995.

Research
Matrai is known for her work on marine aerosols, especially those that contain sulfur. She has examined the production of sulfur compounds by coccolithophores, a type of phytoplankton. She has also examined the amount of organic sulfur inside phytoplankton cells and during phytoplankton blooms. Matrai has worked on the impact of declines in sea ice and how primary production is measured in the Arctic. In 2001 she went to the North Pole on an icebreaker where she studied aerosols produced by phytoplankton. She also does work on outreach and mentoring children to introduce them to science

Awards and honors
In 2017 Matrai was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.