About

Craig Carlson is the Global Futures Professor at the School of Ocean Futures at Arizona State University, with additional affiliations including Senior Global Futures Scientist at the Global Futures Scientists and Scholars. He earned his BA in biology from Colby College and completed his PhD in marine microbial ecology at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Laboratory, where he studied the role of marine microbes in regulating the carbon cycle of open ocean ecosystems. His postdoctoral work at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences focused on the biogeochemistry of dissolved organic matter in ocean systems. Carlson joined the BIOS faculty in 1996, serving as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several projects, including the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and an NSF Microbial Observatory program. From 2001 to 2025, he was a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, where he served as department chair and vice chair of the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science, as well as chairing the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Scientific Steering Committee. His research lies at the intersection of marine microbiology and organic biogeochemistry, with a focus on quantifying the links between microbial community dynamics and the cycling of dissolved organic matter in coastal and open ocean systems. He has maintained active research programs at BIOS even after joining UCSB. In 2015, Carlson became Science Director of the Simons Foundation International's BIOS-SCOPE program, an international microbial oceanography initiative. He has also served on various scientific committees, including the U.S. GO-SHIP Executive Committee, and is a founding Co-Editor of the Annual Reviews in Marine Science. His contributions to ocean science have been recognized with numerous honors, including the AGU Ocean Sciences Early Career Award, the ASLO G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award, election as a Fellow of the AAAS, and recognition as an ASLO Sustaining Fellow. As of August 2025, he is the Director and President of ASU BIOS.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Mathematics education
• Engineering
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Social psychology
• Engineering management
• Engineering ethics
• Medical education
• Pedagogy
• Psychotherapist

Selected publications

• Board 20: Engagement in Practice: First-year Students as “Engineer for a Day” for Middle School Students

  2020 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Engineering
  • Mathematics education

  Abstract Our small, liberal-arts college has a long standing tradition of service learning, and standing relationships with local after-school programs in under-served communities through our Service Learning Center. However, these service experiences have not been integrated into the engineering curriculum. The motivation to integrate engineering majors into this particular service learning project is to demonstrate to engineering students that : - engineering careers can provide great benefit to local communities, - although just starting college studies, first-year engineers can mentor youth who may never have met an engineer, and - communication skills are crucial to practicing engineering. For the past several years, first year students majoring in civil and mechanical engineering have been required to participate in these afterschool programs as “Engineer for a Day.” One engineering major from the class accompanies several students from other majors to an after school program to assist running a STEM activity. The importance of communication in engineering, and of practicing the communication of complex engineering topics to a general audience, is emphasized throughout the course. The engineering students complete a reflection upon return to campus, discuss the experience in class, and use the skills practiced in other projects throughout the semester. The reflections and other collected data show that the engineering majors benefit from seeing themselves as mentors and as having something to share with the community, as well as getting out of their comfort zone and their own culture-bubble. The middle-school students benefit from meeting near-peers who are willing to give of themselves and their time, receiving an aspirational view of the future, and being exposed to STEM and STEM fields. Our next steps are to further integrate the service learning program into the engineering curriculum, with more substantial reflection and synthesis, and in mentoring each other through the experience.

  DOI

• Resilience Within and Resilience Without: Mindfulness and Sustainability Programming Using an Embedded Engineering Librarian Approach

  2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2020 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology

  Students are facing an increasingly chaotic world in part due to global climate change and environmental degradation, causing rising levels of stress and anxiety.Mindfulness and sustainability programs were initiated over three years by a faculty-librarian collaborative team to assist first-year engineering students in building environmental literacy and personal resilience skills.The faculty-librarian team established in class and out of class themes, games, assignments, and programming using an embedded librarian approach.Sustainability programming included environmental movie nights with curricular links and conversations about climate change using the World Caf methodology.These activities allowed students time outside of class to engage with topics in an interdisciplinary manner as they were open to students in all departments and the public.Mindfulness interventions were introduced in the fall 2019 semester and included thought awareness, breathing techniques, a Biodot activity, and an introduction to meditation.Overall, 98% of the 58 students completing a survey in the fall 2019 semester felt the mindfulness techniques were at least a little bit helpful, and 64% felt the techniques would help them fairly well to a tremendous amount.Introducing first-year engineering students to mindfulness techniques and strategies along with sustainability topics, may help students cope with stress and anxiety about environmental challenges and their early college transition, in addition to providing strategies for resilience.These are skills that engineers can benefit from for the rest of their lives.

  DOI

• If Engineers Solve Problems, Why Are There Still So Many Problems to Solve?: Getting Beyond Technical “Solutions” in the Classroom

  2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings · 2020 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Computer Science

  solutions" in the classroom

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Louise C. Mâsse

  British Columbia Children's Hospital

  532 shared

• Anne B. Rodgers

  University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

  531 shared

• Harold W. Kohl

  531 shared

• Brian E. Saelens

  Seattle Children's Hospital

  531 shared

• Nicolaas P. Pronk

  HealthPartners

  531 shared

• Richard P. Troiano

  United States Public Health Service

  530 shared

• Susan A. Carlson

  National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

  530 shared

• Catrine Tudor‐Locke

  University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  530 shared

Education

• Ph.D., marine microbial ecology

  University of Maryland, College Park, MD

  1994

• B.A.

  Colby College, Waterville, ME

  1986

Awards & honors

• AGU Ocean Sciences Early Career Award (2002)
• ASLO G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award (2015)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• ASLO Sustaining Fellow (2024)

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