Maria Tzortziou

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARIA TZORTZIOU

Maria Tzortziou is an endowed Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Bio-Optics Laboratory at the Center for Discovery and Innovation in New York City, affiliated with the City University of New York, Columbia University, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a WINGS-Women of Discovery Explorer, and a Fellow of The Explorer’s Club.Her work aims to advance ocean exploration and improve our understanding of ocean biogeochemistry, ecology and biodiversity, through an integration of cutting-edge ocean observing technologies, creative storytelling, and environmental stewardship. Research in the Tzortziou Bio-Optics Lab applies an interdisciplinary framework that combines advanced satellite remote sensing technologies with multidisciplinary datasets, AI/ML approaches, laboratory experiments, and coupled atmospheric-hydrodynamic-biogeochemical ecosystem models, to address global ocean challenges. A key objective of this work is to link science to practice and enhance decision support systems. Tzortziou has led numerous field campaigns across a range of environments, from the Arctic Ocean to the Sea of Japan, from the Gulf of Mexico wetlands and the urbanized Chesapeake Bay estuarine waters to the Asian coastal megacities of Seoul and Busan, to the Hindu-Kush Himalayan River basins. She has served as the Deputy Program Applications Lead for NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) Mission, and the Applied Science Lead for NASA\'s GLIMR (Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer) Mission. She is the Lead Principal Investigator for Arctic-FORTE (Frontlines of Rapidly Transforming Ecosystems), a four-year NASA Earth Venture Suborbital Mission that will combine state-of-the-art ocean observing technologies and predictive models to explore the remote and rapidly transforming ecosystem of the coastal Alaskan Arctic and how environmental change is impacting this region and beyond.Tzortziou has served as an expert on numerous interagency advisory and leadership boards relevant to ocean science, marine technology, and policy, including the Science Steering Committee for the Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry Program, the Science leadership Board for the North American Carbon Program, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, and the National Ocean Research Advisory Panel.