Dr. Rebecca Vega Thurber is a Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology and the Director of the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. Her lab investigates the role and dynamics of bacteria and viruses in marine hosts and habitats in order to better understand and mitigate or prevent the proximate causes of marine disease, habitat degradation, and ecosystem alteration. She is currently a Senior Editor of the flagship journal The International Society for Microbial Ecology Journal (ISMEJ) and the Editor and Chief of the new fully free journal Open Advances in Marine Biology, PeerJ.

Dr. Vega Thurber is an author of over 100 scientific publications, including 5 book chapters, and her collective work has been cited over 21,000 times to date. Dr. Vega Thurber has been awarded over $7.3 million dollars in funding, and her lab has trained 11 postdoctoral researchers, 13 PhD students, and 29 undergraduates.

Dr. Vega Thurber is committed to communicating science to broader audiences including the production of a multilingual cartoon series and a full-length documentary on coral reef decline entitled, Saving Atlantis. She has spoken on Capitol Hill and has been a featured speaker at national and international meetings. Through these platforms, she seeks to influence the public discourse on marine conservation and its importance to biodiversity, local economies, and cultural preservation.

Dr. Vega Thurber graduated from UC Santa Cruz, in 1999, with dual degrees in Marine Biology and Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology. She received her PhD from Stanford University in Biological Sciences in 2005. She conducted her NSF minority Postdoctoral Fellowship (PFRB) at San Diego State University with Dr. Forest Rohwer from 2006 to 2009.