Rate My Professor Lisa Beal

Beal’s research centers on physical oceanography, with a specialization in western boundary currents, particularly the Agulhas Current system off South Africa and its role in global climate dynamics. She has participated in 17 research voyages across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, accumulating 357 days at sea and serving as chief scientist on numerous expeditions, including the 47-day World Ocean Circulation Experiment crossing from South Africa to Australia and joint missions with South African scientists. Her Agulhas Current Time-series (ACT) project, funded by the National Science Foundation from 2010 to 2013, demonstrated that the current has broadened due to increased turbulence since the early 1990s, influencing heat transport, sea level rise, and regional climate patterns. Key publications include “On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate” (Nature, 2011), “Capturing the Transport Variability of a Western Boundary Jet: Results from the Agulhas Current Time-Series Experiment (ACT)” (Journal of Physical Oceanography, 2015), and studies on Agulhas leakage and Indian Ocean circulation. Beal has led a review of the Indian Ocean observing system for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, co-organized the first American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference in Africa, and advocated for diversity in oceanography through a short film adopted by the Smithsonian Institution. In 2019, she delivered the Marie Tharpe Lecture at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.