Principal Scientist
Mónica V. Orellana, MS., Ph.D., PI Dr. Orellana is a Principal Scientist at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and at the Science Polar Center, Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington. She has a B. Sc. in Biology/Zoology (Chile), and M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Dr. Orellana is a Biological Oceanographer with expertise in phytoplankton physiological and molecular ecology, biophysical processes of secretion and exocytosis of biopolymers and dynamics of marine polymer microgel networks and their roles in ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical processes. She leads the projects related to ocean acidification and program cell death in the microbial loop and has designed with Ms Claudia Ludwig an education module to teach the process of systems biology in context of climate change, carbon cycling and ocean acidification. She has participated in several expeditions to the North Pacific, Arctic, Atlantic Ocean and the Puget Sound. As a PI and co-PI she has produced important peer review publications (Nature, PNAS), contributing to important new scientific paradigms in the field of biological/chemical oceanography and biological/atmospheric sciences.