Dr. Joellen Russell is a Distinguished Professor and Department Head in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, where she also holds the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Integrative Science. Joellen’s research uses robot floats, supercomputers and satellites to study the Southern Ocean and the ocean’s role in the transient global climate.
Dr. Russell is the current US Representative at the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) and the former chair of the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s Climate Working Group. She teaches oceans and climate to 500-1000 students each year. Before joining UA, Prof. Russell was a Research Scientist at Princeton University and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Joellen is the mother of two, ages 14 and 18. Growing up in a tiny fishing village in the arctic, she was always fascinated by the ocean and knew she wanted to be an oceanographer at the age of twelve. Her children and her students’ compassion, kindness, and hard work have convinced her that when it’s their turn, we’ll all be in good hands. She hopes that her future grand-babies will understand that she did everything she could for them.