Patricia Matrai | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of California, San Diego |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Phytoplankton production of organic sulfur in the ocean surface waters (1988) |
Patricia Ana Matrai is a marine scientist known for her work on the cycling of sulfur. She is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
Matrai is originally from Chile. [1] Matria has a B.A. from the Universidad de Concepción (1981), an M.S. (1984) and a Ph.D. (1988) from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego. Following her Ph.D. she moved to the University of Miami. She became a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in 1995. [2]
Matrai is known for her work on marine aerosols, especially those that contain sulfur. She has examined the production of sulfur compounds by coccolithophores, [3] a type of phytoplankton. [4] She has also examined the amount of organic sulfur inside phytoplankton cells [5] and during phytoplankton blooms. [6] Matrai has worked on the impact of declines in sea ice [7] and how primary production is measured in the Arctic. [8] [9] In 2001 she went to the North Pole on an icebreaker where she studied aerosols produced by phytoplankton. [10] She also does work on outreach and mentoring children to introduce them to science [11]
In 2017, Matrai was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. [12]