James B. McClintock

James B. McClintock is the Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz (1978) and his doctoral degree from the University of South Florida (1984).

In 1987, after completing a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He became a Full Professor at UAB in 1997 and has also served as Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (1999-2003) and as Interim Dean of the Graduate School (2003-2005).

Dr. McClintock’s research focuses on aspects of marine invertebrate nutrition, reproduction, and primarily, chemical ecology. He has published over 220 scientific publications, edited and written books, been invited to make numerous scientific and popular science presentations, and his research has been featured in a variety of public media outlets including National Geographic magazine, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, CNN, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

He has led or co-directed 14 expeditions to Antarctica where over the past two decades he and his research collaborators have become the world’s authorities on Antarctic marine chemical ecology and have developed an award winning interactive educational outreach web site (www.antarctica.uab.edu). He has become an expert on the ecological impacts of climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula and was recently funded by the NSF to conduct studies of the impacts of ocean acidification on Antarctica calcified algae and invertebrates. He lectures and writes on aspects of Antarctic climate change. His upcoming book Lost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land (Palgrave/McMillan) was released in September 2012.

He has received numerous awards including the UAB Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for excellence in teaching and the UAB Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for outstanding scholarship. In 2001 he was selected as the winner of the Wright A. Gardner Award for the most outstanding scientist in the state of Alabama. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1998 the United States Board on Geographic Names designated the geographic feature “McClintock Point” in honor of his contributions to Antarctic science.