2019 Metcalf Cup and Prize Recipient: Robinson Fulweiler

Robinson W. Fulweiler, ecosystems ecologist and biogeochemist, is an Associate Professor in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Noted for using a variety of pedagogical techniques, she constantly refines her teaching methods and possesses a rare ability to generate enthusiasm and elicit student participation, even in large lecture halls.

Students from her “Introduction to Oceanography” and graduate-level “Marine Biogeochemistry” courses alike describe her as a “funny,” “passionate professor” with “a big personality” who “loves what she is teaching” and is “electric during lecture,” even as she “takes time to make sure students understand the concepts.”

Professor Fulweiler directs the Boston University Marine Program, which includes the Marine Semester, a sequence of rigorous, immersive, interdisciplinary courses featuring field-based research. This experience exposes students to the pressing issue of human impact on marine ecosystems, so they come to understand the interconnections of science, culture, and society.

She is also an outstanding mentor. In the words of her nominator, Professor Fulweiler “not only uses her talents to instruct . . . but has transformed lives and careers.” Graduate students from her laboratory have won competitive fellowships from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation and have gone on to prestigious postdoctoral study or academic positions. She gives generously of her time, having overseen 15 undergraduate research projects, eight directed studies, and eight honors theses, as well as 36 undergraduate lab assistants and even seven high school interns.

Professor Fulweiler earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Vermont, and a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. Her research investigates human impact on the ecology and elemental cycling of coastal ecosystems.