Dr. Heather Benway has served as the executive officer for the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) since May 2007, with continued contributions to science through publications, leadership, and innovation. Dr. Benway’s service and ability as a scientist, a community leader, and a coordinator have been dedicated to organizing, synthesizing, and prioritizing ocean community science ideas and concepts, and parlaying them into new scientific and technological initiatives. These initiatives are in a range of interdisciplinary, dynamic, and rapidly evolving areas, including carbon cycle science, climate research, science education, biogeochemistry, storytelling, geoengineering, and safety in field programs. Dr. Benway’s actions through OCB have immeasurably influenced ocean science’s role in the major activities of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program, a body that coordinates and facilitates activities relevant to carbon cycle science, climate, and global change issues across federal agencies.

OCB’s overarching goal is to explore the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle and the response of marine ecosystems to environmental changes of the past (paleo), present, and future (prediction). Dr. Benway keeps a disparate group of scientists and a number of different efforts integrated, synthesized, and moving forward to a common goal. She facilitated numerous initiatives to promote early-career scientists and maintains a focus on justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity. She is instrumental in synthesizing direction from three distinct federal agencies (National Science Foundation, NASA, and NOAA) with different missions who supported the OCB office and its development, while bringing uniquely innovative approaches and novel scientific ideas on how to engage and reach the public. Her efforts have resulted in a number of new, federal research initiatives that are inclusive and equitable, and created opportunities for fieldwork and research for not only midcareer and senior scientists, but also for student and early-career researchers.

Over the course of her tenure as OCB executive officer, Dr. Benway has moved and will continue to move the ocean sciences fields forward. The OCB personnel and office, under Dr. Benway’s leadership, continue to excite faculty, students, staff, and the public alike about the ocean and its role in the Earth system. Dr. Benway and her collaborative spirit are one key reason that the United States will generate an equitable and inclusive climate-literate workforce to tackle the grand challenges of Earth’s future.

—Paula Bontempi, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett

It is my great honor to receive the 2023 AGU Ocean Sciences Award and especially humbling as I consider previous recipients of this award who have impacted my career path as mentors, exemplary leaders, and changemakers. I credit scientists like Drs. John A. Knauss and J. Michael Hall for paving critical pathways in ocean science and inspiring me early in my career as a Knauss marine policy fellow working in a NOAA climate office in Silver Spring, Md. This fellowship provides a holistic view of the many diverse and important roles there are to play in advancing ocean science. At this pivotal moment in my career, I bore witness to bold leadership and forward-thinking interdisciplinary climate science and decision support initiatives. Since the beginning of my Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) journey, I credit scientists like Drs. Paula Bontempi and Donald Rice for setting extraordinary examples of visionary leadership and service to the oceanographic community. In my early efforts to shepherd bottom-up science and technology initiatives, these fine mentors inspired me to break down disciplinary silos, provide an engaging forum, and emerge from the process with a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. I cannot accept such an award without honoring the extraordinary talent and dedication of my copilots on this journey, Mary Zawoysky, Mairead Maheigan, and formerly Drs. Scott Doney and Sarah Cooley. OCB would not exist without their contributions! We have all worked together to create a safe, equitable, and inclusive gathering space for ideas to take shape. Our team is passionately committed to supporting the next generation of OCB scientists along their career paths, and being part of their stories has been incredibly rewarding. It is the energy and collaboration of countless members of the OCB community that have made my coordination and community building work so fruitful. Together we have cultivated cutting- edge research areas, led important synthesis and science planning efforts to inform agency investment, and engaged in education and public outreach to build awareness around the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle and climate. I hope that everything we have built together in OCB will serve as a legacy for years to come. —Heather Benway, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass.