Rate My Professor Terrie Williams

Terrie Williams is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, within the Biology faculty. She also holds joint appointments in the Institute of Marine Sciences and the Environmental Studies Department. Williams received her M.S. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University, followed by an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a Kaiser Environmental Fellowship at the San Diego Zoological Society. A comparative ecophysiologist, she serves as Principal Investigator of the NeuroResilience Wildlife Lab (NRWL Lab), also known as the Narwhal Lab, and Director of the Center for Marine Mammal Research and Conservation. Her research explores the physiological adaptations of large mammalian predators to extreme conditions, including neuroprotection mechanisms in diving mammals, energetic demands in felids like African lions and pumas, hunting costs in wolves and polar bears, and responses to environmental stressors in marine species such as narwhals, dolphins, seals, sea otters, and manatees. Employing advanced micro-sensors, her studies reveal the integration of neural, cardiovascular, thermal, and metabolic systems crucial for survival in a changing world.

Williams has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including "Paradoxical escape responses by narwhals (Monodon monoceros)" in Science (2017), "Swimming and diving energetics in dolphins: a stroke-by-stroke analysis for predicting the cost of flight responses in wild odontocetes" in the Journal of Experimental Biology (2017), "Exercise at depth alters bradycardia and incidence of cardiac anomalies in deep-diving marine mammals" in Nature Communications (2015), and "Running, swimming and diving modifies neuroprotecting globins in the mammalian brain" (2024). Her popular science books include The Hunter’s Breath: On Expedition with the Weddell Seals of the Antarctic (2004) and The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine Biologist, and the Fight to Save a Species (2012), which received the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Young Adult category (2013). Among her honors are the 2024 National Academy of Sciences Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal for contributions to ecological physiology, and the 2007 Wings WorldQuest Women of Discovery Sea Award recognizing her Weddell seal research. Williams' pioneering field measurements have illuminated the ecological roles and vulnerabilities of apex predators, advancing conservation efforts.