Robinson (“Wally”) Fulweiler

Robinson (“Wally”) Fulweiler, core faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is an ecosystems ecologist and biogeochemist by training. Fulweiler heads a laboratory at Boston University where their research is focused on answering fundamental questions about energy flow and biogeochemical cycling of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica), carbon, and oxygen in a variety of environments. She is especially interested in how anthropogenic activities affect the ecology and elemental cycling of ecosystems on a variety of scales, from local nutrient loading to global climate change. Their latest research is centered on the transformations of elements across the land-ocean continuum, the ultimate fate of nitrogen in the marine environment, the impact of climate change on benthic-pelagic coupling, and the role of coastal systems in greenhouse gas budgets.

Fulweiler earned her MS (2003) and PhD (2007) in Oceanography from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, following which she completed postdoctoral research at Louisiana State University. In 2008 she started at Boston University and founded her lab. Fulweiler was awarded tenure in the Department of Earth & Environment and the Department of Biology in 2014 and was promoted to Professor in the spring of 2021. Her professional honors include a Sloan Fellowship in 2012, the Cronin award from the Coastal Estuarine Research Federation in 2013, and the Metcalf Cup and Prize in 2019 – BU’s highest teaching and mentoring award.

In addition to her scientific endeavors, she is a passionate advocate for women and parents, especially mothers, in science. Fulweiler’s goal is to create an equitable scientific community where individuals do not simply survive but thrive.

Pronouns: she/her