Rebecca Albright

Dr. Rebecca Albright is an Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the California Academy of Sciences and a Patterson Scholar. She leads research on coral reef resilience under climate change, specializing in ocean acidification, coral reproduction, and restoration strategies. Her work bridges lab-based experiments with field applications, including a pioneering Coral Spawning Lab simulating lunar cycles to study coral reproduction.

Education: B.S. from Duke University, advanced training at University of Miami, and postdoctoral research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Key research includes documenting ocean acidification impacts on coral calcification and developing conservation breeding programs. Collaborations span academic, government, and nonprofit sectors.

Research Interests:

• Coral reproductive biology
• Climate change mitigation in marine ecosystems
• Land-based coral spawning systems
• Genetic diversity preservation
• Field-to-lab restoration linkages

Awards: Honored as a Patterson Scholar for her transformative contributions to coral reef science and conservation. Her work on the Great Barrier Reef demonstrated measurable impacts of acidification on reef growth, published in Nature.

Lab & Field Work: Established the Academy’s Coral Spawning Lab to investigate coral reproduction under controlled conditions, enabling year-round spawning studies. Livestreamed spawning events during the pandemic expanded public engagement. Partnerships with Steinhart Aquarium and engineering teams advance lab infrastructure for temperature/pH manipulation.

Future Focus: Scaling lab systems to accelerate discoveries on ocean warming and acidification effects, while translating findings into field restoration strategies for reef resilience.