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= Claudia Benitez-Nelson = Claudia Benitez-Nelson is a Latinx American oceanographer whose research focuses on marine geochemistry and biogeochemistry. A Carolina Distinguished Professor, she currently serves as the Associate Dean for Instruction, Community Engagement, and Research for the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Early Life and Education
Claudia Benitez-Nelson grew up in Seattle, Washington and attended the University of Washington, where she earned B.S. Degrees in Chemistry and Oceanography in 1992. She received her doctoral degree in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program in 1999.

Career and Research
Upon earning her doctoral degree, Claudia Benitez-Nelson was named a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii. During that time, she was also named a School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SEOST) Young Investigator. In 2002, Benitez-Nelson began as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology (now the School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment) with a Joint Appointment in the Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). She earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2006 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2010. Benitez-Nelson served as the Undergraduate Director and then Director of UofSC's Marine Science Program.

Claudia Benitez-Nelson’s research centers on the mechanisms that influence the formation, composition, and downward transport of material from the surface ocean to depth. This research directly relates to biological production and diversity and the ocean’s role in the uptake and sequestration of greenhouse gases, nutrients, toxins and trace metals. She has been a leader in developing new techniques that use both novel chemical approaches (i.e., Benitez-Nelson et al, 2004; Diaz et al, 2008; Sekula-Wood et al, 2009; McParland et al., 2015) and sample collection methods with naturally occurring short-lived radionuclides (i.e., Benitez-Nelson and Buesseler, 1998; Benitez-Nelson et al., 2001; Buesseler et al. 2001; Benitez-Nelson and Moore, 2006 (and references therein); White et al., 2013). She has authored or coauthored more than 130 articles, which have been published in premier, high impact journals such as PlosOne, Geophysical Research Letters, Nature and Science, and has been the principle investigator or co-principle investigator on substantial, multi-year research and education grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), among others. Her research has received international acclaim and includes the Early Career Award in Oceanography from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Fulbright and Marie Curie Fellowships, and being named National Academies of Science/Humboldt Foundation Kavli Fellow, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, and a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). Her many professional service duties include serving as Chair of the International Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Capacity Building Committee, National Academy of Science Ocean Studies Board, and as an elected member of the AGU Ocean Sciences Section and ASLO Executive Committees. Benitez-Nelson is also highly regarded as a teacher, receiving many teaching honors, including the Mungo Distinguished Professor Award, the UofSC’s highest undergraduate teaching award.

Diversity, Inclusion, Outreach and Mentoring
Throughout her career, Dr. Benitez-Nelson has been an outspoken advocate for the diversity and inclusion of women and minorities in STEM fields. She has spearheaded a number of programs to increase the participation and success of underrepresented communities in STEM. She helped to establish the NSF-funded GeoScholar Scholarship Program which aims to increase the number of historically underrepresented students who pursue and complete an undergraduate geoscience degree in the School of the Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the UofSC and the Bridge to Doctorate Program, which supports doctoral students in STEM fields for the first two years of their doctoral programs. She has also served as a TRIO McNair Mentor, the goal of which is to increase the number of Ph.D. recipients who are low-income or first-generation students from underrepresented groups in graduate school.

Awards and Honors
Benitez-Nelson was an elected fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has been awarded the Ocean Sciences Early Career Award by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Some of her other awards and honors include:


 * The Oceanography Society Mentoring Award, For Excellence and/or Innovation in Mentoring the Next Generation of Ocean Scientists, 2021
 * Sustaining Fellow, Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography, 2017
 * SEC Faculty Achievement Award, 2016
 * Ada B. Thomas Outstanding Faculty Advisor of the Year Award, UofSC, 2016
 * Sulzman Award for Excellence in Education and Mentoring, Biogeosciences Section, American Geophysical Union, 2014
 * Mungo Distinguished Professor, UofSC, 2013
 * National Academies of Science/Humboldt Foundation Kavli Fellow, 2012
 * Faculty of the Year, National Award from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (for outstanding undergraduate mentoring and leadership), 2005
 * S. Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation (SCAMP) Outstanding Mentor, 2002
 * Environmental Protection Agency STAR Graduate Fellowship, 1996-1998

Selected Works
Benitez-Nelson's publications include:


 * McCabe, K, Smith, E, Lang, S, Osburn, C, Benitez-Nelson, C (2021) Particulate and dissolved organic matter in storm water runoff influences oxygen demand in urbanized headwater catchments, Environmental Science and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c04502.
 * Osborne, EO, Thunell, RC, Gruber, N, Feely, RF, Benitez-Nelson, CR (2019) Climatic Modulation of Anthropogenic Ocean Acidification in the California Current, Nature Geoscience, 13, 43–49 (2020) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0499-z.
 * Umhau, B, Benitez-Nelson, CR, Anderson, C, McCabe, K, Burrell, C (2018) A time series of water column distributions and sinking particle flux of Pseudo-nitzschia and domoic acid in the Santa Barbara Basin, California. Toxins, Nov 17;10(11). pii: E480. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110480.
 * Humphries, MA, Benitez-Nelson, CR (2013).  Recent trends in sediment and nutrient accumulation rates in coastal, freshwater Lake Sibaya, South Africa, Marine and Freshwater Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/MF12313.
 * Stukel, M., M. Landry, M.D. Ohman, R. Goericke, T. Samo, C.R. Benitez-Nelson (2012) Do inverse ecosystem models accurately reconstruct plankton food web flows?  A comparison of two solution methods using field data from the California Current Ecosystem. Journal of Marine Systems, 91, 20-33.
 * Diaz, J, E. Ingall, C. R.  Benitez-Nelson, D. Paterson, M. de Jonge, J. A. Brandes (2008) Marine Polyphosphate: A Key Player in Geologic Phosphorus Sequestration. Science, Science, 320, 652-655.
 * Benitez-Nelson, C. R. et al. (+ 23 authors) (2007)  Mesoscale eddies drive increased silica export in the subtropical Pacific Ocean. Science, 312, 1017-1021.
 * Buesseler, K. O., C. R. Benitez-Nelson, S. B. Moran, A. Burd, M. Charette, J. K. Cochran, L. Coppola, N. S. Fisher, S. W. Fowler, W. D. Gardner, L. D. Guo, O. Gustafsson, C. Lamborg, P. Masque, J. C. Miquel, U. Passow, P. H. Santschi, N. Savoye, G. Stewart, and T. Trull (2006) An assessment of particulate organic carbon to thorium-234 ratios in the ocean and their impact on the application of 234Th as a POC flux proxy.  Marine Chemistry, 100, 213-233.