Today’s sea turtle conservationists stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us, a phenomenon that goes back centuries to the first women and men who ever observed, described, and marveled at these incredible marine reptiles that thousands of us now work so passionately to conserve. Each successive generation has advanced our cause, and along that continuum of humans past and present are influential people of all ages, from all over the world, working in many arenas on countless topics and tasks. Yet, within that spectrum of sea turtle-centric humanity, there are some whose work spans decades, and whose influence and impact has been outsized by any number of metrics. On this page, SWOT begins to spotlight some of these living legends.
Karen Bjorndal received her PhD in 1979 under the direction of Archie Carr. She is director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research and is a distinguished professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on nutritional ecology and demography of sea turtles, with an emphasis on the roles of sea turtles in marine ecosystems and how these ecosystems have changed in response to major shifts in abundance of sea turtle populations.
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