LAUSR

Paul G. Falkowski spent much of his research career analyzing the activity of aquatic microorganisms, which captured his interest early in life. As a child, growing up in a New York City Housing Project in Harlem, he received a small fish tank from a family friend, and his father bought him a microscope, prompting Falkowski to observe the tank’s microscopic inhabitants. Intrigued, he started borrowing books on fish and microbes from the local public library. “They were from the adult section, so my father had to take them out for me, and I started to become very interested in biology,” he says. “I knew every tropical fish, where they came from, what they ate—I bred them and sold them to buy more fish,” says Falkowski. Falkowski translated his interest into pioneering work as a biologist and oceanographer, particularly on understanding photosynthesis and other chemical processes in marine organisms, such as phytoplankton and corals. He has developed new instruments and techniques that have helped researchers study biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, from both ships and satellites. More recently, Falkowski has turned his attention to deciphering the origins of life and the microbial biochemical reactions that transformed Earth’s atmosphere. Falkowski’s work on the global biogeochemical cycles of the ocean won him the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2018 for his “fundamental contributions to Earth’s geochemical processes” (1). He has published numerous papers and textbooks and also wrote a popular science book describing his research and experiences in science, Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable (2). Now, a Board of Governors professor at Rutgers University, Falkowski was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.