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Dr. Lisa Natanson has studied the life history of sharks for over four decades. Lisa started her research on sharks in California, where she received an MS in Marine Biology in 1984 at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. In 1984, she relocated to the East Coast and became part of the team researching life history of Atlantic sharks at the Apex Predators Program (APP) at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in Narragansett, Rhode Island, while obtaining her PhD in Oceanography in the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography.

Lisa became a Research Fisheries Scientist in the APP in 1992, and she remained there until she retired in 2020. Lisa’s research focused on age, growth, and reproduction of sharks. She was also actively involved in the collection of data for food habits research and in tagging sharks with both conventional and satellite tags. Much of Lisa’s time was spent in the field collecting biological samples at recreational shark tournaments or engaged in research on commercial, recreational, and research vessels. Lisa’s expertise is recognized internationally; she has published more than 80 scientific papers, and she has been asked to aid in research in New Zealand and Canada.

Lisa joined the Editorial Board of Environmental Biology of Fishes in 2021, and she has served as a reviewer for a number of other journals, including Estuarine and Coastal Marine Science, Fishery Bulletin, Journal of Fish Biology, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Marine Biology, and Marine Ecology Progress Series.