Rate My Professor Lisa Beal

Lisa Beal serves as a Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and her PhD in Oceanography from the University of Southampton. Renowned for her expertise on the Agulhas System of currents off the coast of South Africa, Beal has significantly advanced the understanding of its critical role in a warming climate through pioneering publications and international leadership initiatives. Her research integrates in situ observations from moored, profiling, shipboard, and drifting instruments with modeling to quantify ocean fluxes and variabilities, particularly in major boundary currents like the Agulhas and Florida Currents. As principal investigator of the Beal Lab, she leads efforts to measure ocean currents and their properties, analyzing data to elucidate the ocean's influence on climate change and variability.

In addition to her research, Beal teaches courses such as Introduction to Physical Oceanography and Climate Change, and mentors graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in both Ocean Sciences and Meteorology and Physical Oceanography programs. She actively promotes diversity by enhancing engagement, recruitment, and retention of women and underrepresented minorities in oceanography. Beal contributes to capacity building in southern Africa, periodically teaching in the University of Cape Town's Honors program and establishing partnerships for long-term Agulhas System observations. Appointed an honorary research associate at the University of Cape Town in 2016, she has also held editorial positions, including editor for the ocean section of Geophysical Research Letters from 2014 to 2017 and currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. Notable publications include "Capturing the Transport Variability of a Western Boundary Jet: Results from the Agulhas Current Time-Series Experiment (ACT)" published in 2015 in the Journal of Physical Oceanography, and contributions to studies on ocean eddies amplifying coastal climate extremes and turbulent mixing in the Cape Cauldron.