biology

Paul Falkowski

Paul Falkowski is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul Falkowski rather than just read about it. In short: Paul G. Falkowski (born 1951) is an American biological oceanographer in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Key takeaways

Paul Falkowski belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul Falkowski to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul Falkowski from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul G. Falkowski (born 1951) is an American biological oceanographer in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His research work focuses on phytoplankton and primary production, and his wider interests include evolution, paleoecology, photosynthesis, biogeochemical cycles and astrobiology.

Early life and education Born in New York City in 1951, Falkowski was educated at the City College of New York, where he received his BSc. and MSc. degrees. He completed his doctoral thesis in biology and biophysics at the University of British Columbia in 1975.

Career After postdoctoral research at the University of Rhode Island, he moved to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1976 to join its newly formed oceanography department, and in 1998 he moved to Rutgers University. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992, and was appointed as Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor at the University of British Columbia in 1996. Falkowski's research work has included studies of phytoplankton nutrient acquisition and the relationships with light of both phytoplankton and corals. He has also studied the biophysical controls on ocean productivity and export production, and the importance of the nitrogen and iron cycles in ocean biogeochemistry. His research has also drawn in geoengineering, astrobiology, and the evolution of groups including phytoplankton and placental mammals. He is also a co-author, with John Raven, of the influential textbook Aquatic Photosynthesis.

Awards and honours He has been elected to a number of learned societies including the American Geophysical Union (2001), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2002) and the National Academy of Sciences (2007). He has also received a number of awards including the A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences (1998), the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award (2000), the European Geosciences Union Vernadsky Medal (2005) and the ECI Prize (2010). In 2018, Paul Falkowski was nominated as a recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his work on phytoplankton as it relates to climate change impacts. He shares the 2018 Tyler Prize, known as the "Nobel Prize" of the environment, with fellow biological oceanographer Dr. James J. McCarthy of Harvard University.

References

External links Paul Falkowski homepage, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences Short biography, Royal Society "Electrons, Life and the Evolution of the Oxygen Cycle on Earth" seminar, MIT World

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul Falkowski

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul Falkowski claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul Falkowski before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul Falkowski ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul Falkowski

In research: Paul Falkowski appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul Falkowski in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul Falkowski is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, Academic staff of the University of British Columbia, American expatriate academics in Canada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul Falkowski outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul Falkowski in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul Falkowski means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul Falkowski out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul Falkowski in simple terms?

Paul G. Falkowski (born 1951) is an American biological oceanographer in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Why does Paul Falkowski matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul Falkowski?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul Falkowski.