James J. McCarthy is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography, and from 1982 to 2002 he was the Director of Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. He is also the Master of Harvard’s Pforzheimer House. Jim McCarthy received his undergraduate degree in biology from Gonzaga University, and his Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His research interests relate to the regulation of plankton productivity in the sea, and in recent years have focused on regions that are strongly affected by seasonal and inter-annual variation in climate. He has authored many scientific papers and currently teaches courses on biological oceanography and biogeochemical cycles, marine ecosystems, and global change and human health. He has served and serves on many national and international planning committees, advisory panels and commissions relating to oceanography, polar science and the study of climate and global change. From 1986 to 1993 he chaired the international committee that establishes research priorities and oversees implementation of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, he was the founding editor for the American Geophysical Union’s Global Biogeochemical Cycles, and was involved in two of the recent international assessments on Climate Change, Working Group II, which was involved in two of the recent international assessments on climate impacts of and vulnerabilities to gobal climate change for the Third International Panel on Climate Change Assessment (2001). He is one of the lead authors on the recently completed Arctic Climate Impact Asessment (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He is President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
