Alina Szmant

Alina Szmant is a retired professor of marine biology whose research focused on physiological ecology and reproductive biology of reef corals. She was a member of the all-female crew of the Tektite II underwater habitat project. She is the developer of CISME, and CEO of CISME Instruments, LLC.

Early life and education Szmant was born in Dayton, Ohio and lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until the age of 10. She then moved to Cuba with her family until she was 15. After the U.S. and Cuba severed relations, the family fled to Miami, Florida for a short time before moving to Puerto Rico where she finished high school.

Szmant studied marine biology at the University of Puerto Rico and in 1966 she obtained a B.S. in biology. In 1970, she obtained an M.S. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and in 1980, a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.

During the years 1970 to 1973, Szmant was a part of the research staff at the University of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Nuclear Center. From 1980 to 1983, she was a part of the research faculty at Florida State University. Her research preceded the first publication documenting sexual reproduction in corals in the Great Barrier Reef in 1984 by Peter L. Harrison.

From 1983 to 1999, Szmant was a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. She also was on the Scientific Technical Advisory Committee for the Water Quality Plan of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary between 1994 and 2004. In 1999, Szmant joined the University of North Carolina Wilmington as an adjunct professor, where she remained until her retirement from academia.

In 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) funded Szmant and fellow researcher at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Rob Whitehead, to develop a new instrument to measure coral health. The result was CISME (Community In Situ MEtabolism, pronounced "kiss-me"), the first non-invasive, diver-portable respirometer designed to measure respiration, photosynthesis and calcification rates in corals. This development can help researchers study coral habitats and further understand coral bleaching, climate change, and flooding sediment.