Claudia Benitez-Nelson

Claudia Benitez-Nelson is an American oceanographer whose research focuses on marine geochemistry and biogeochemistry. A Carolina Distinguished Professor, she serves as the Senior Associate Dean for College Initiatives and Interdisciplinary Programs at the University of South Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Career and research Claudia Benitez-Nelson grew up in Seattle, Washington and attended the University of Washington, where she earned B.S. Degrees in Chemistry and Oceanography in 1992. She received her doctoral degree in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 1999. Upon graduation, Benitez-Nelson was named a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii as well as a School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) Young Investigator. In 2002, Benitez-Nelson joined the University of South Carolina (USC). She earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2006 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2010. She is a Carolina Distinguished Professor and holds an Endowed Chair in Marine Studies. Benitez-Nelson served as the Undergraduate Director and then Director of USC's Marine Science Program, and then as Associate Dean and Senior Associate Dean in the McCausland College of Arts & Sciences.

Benitez-Nelson is highly regarded for her cross-disciplinary research, ranging from biogeochemistry to radiochemistry. Her research centers on the mechanisms that influence the formation, composition, and downward transport of material from the surface ocean to depth and from land to sea. This research directly relates to biological production and diversity and the ocean’s role in the uptake and sequestration of greenhouse gases, nutrients, toxins, and trace metals. She has been a leader in developing new techniques that use both novel chemical approaches (i.e., Benitez-Nelson et al, 2004; Diaz et al, 2008; Sekula-Wood et al, 2009; McParland et al., 2015) and sample collection methods with naturally occurring short-lived radionuclides (i.e., Benitez-Nelson and Buesseler, 1998; Benitez-Nelson et al., 2001; Buesseler et al. 2001; Benitez-Nelson and Moore, 2006 (and references therein); White et al., 2013). She has authored or coauthored more than 150 articles, which have been published in premier, high-impact journals such as PlosOne, Geophysical Research Letters, Nature and Science, and has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on substantial, multi-year research and education grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), among others. Her research has received international acclaim and includes the Early Career Award in Oceanography from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Fulbright and Marie Curie Fellowships, and being named National Academies of Science/Humboldt Foundation Kavli Fellow, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), and a Fellow of the Oceanography Society. Her many professional service duties include serving as Chair of the International Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Capacity Building Committee, Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, and as an elected member of the AGU Ocean Sciences Section and ASLO Executive Committees. Along with being a part of those committees, she is also a member of ScienceMoms. Benitez-Nelson is also highly regarded as a teacher, receiving many teaching honors, including the Mungo Distinguished Professor Award, USC’s highest undergraduate teaching award.

Awards and honors

In 2021, she received The Oceanography Society’s inaugural Mentoring Award.

Benitez-Nelson was an elected fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has been awarded the Ocean Sciences Early Career Award Sustaining Fellow, Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography, 2017 Ada B. Thomas Outstanding Faculty Advisor of the Year Award, UofSC, 2016 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2015 Mungo Distinguished Professor, USC, 2013

Selected publications