
Welcome to the webpage for Elizabeth Sibert! My research asks the question “How does the ocean, and marine life, work, in the past, present, and future?” I am broadly interested in the evolution, structure, and function of marine ecosystems, and how these ecosystems respond to global change. I use a multi-proxy approach to study how the ocean ecosystems have changed through time, with a focus on responses to climate and biotic events in Earth’s more recent history, such as global warming and mass extinctions. I specialize in using ichthyoliths, tiny fossil fish teeth and shark scales found in pelagic sediments worldwide, which I then incorporate with myriad other climate and biotic proxies to better understand the ecosystem as a whole.
I am currently an Assistant Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I am setting up the Paleo-Biological Oceanography laboratory. If you are interested in research opportunities, please reach out via email – I’d love to hear from you!
My previous positions include Associate Research Scientist (2022-2023) and Hutchinson Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022) at Yale University, and Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (2016-2020). I completed my PhD in Oceanography in 2016 at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In addition to my research, I am passionate about making science and research accessible to folks with disabilities (see Kingsbury et al 2020, JGE, and Cooke et al 2020, EOS). I have also been discovering the fun of 3D printing, mostly fossils and other teaching aids.
I’ve always loved the ocean, from the moment I first learned of the creatures that could live their lives underwater. What captured my imagination at first was the animals themselves, and as I dug deeper into their biology, I learned that life in the oceans was intricately linked to the physical, geological, and chemical properties of the ocean itself, and I am fascinated by how these links work together to create the ocean world that we see today.
My CV is available here
You can contact me at esibert [at] whoi [dot] edu
Official WHOI Profile
Official Yale EPS Profile
Official Harvard EPS Profile
I am also a founder and co-organizer of the international virtual Early Career Seminar Series, Pal(a)eoPERCS
You can find me on Twitter @ElizabethSibert and on GitHub as esibert
