About Mimi Koehl

Photograph of Koehl doing field work on a rocky shore in breaking waves

Awards and Honors

  • Presidential Young Investigator Award, 1983
  • Young Alumni Achievement Award, Gettysburg College, 1985
  • John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1988
  • MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award, 1990-95
  • Fellow, California Academy of Science, elected 1993
  • Distinguished Alumni Award, Gettysburg College, 1998
  • Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, 1998-1999
  • Miller Professorship, 2000-2001 and 2013-2014
  • National Academy of Sciences, elected 2001
  • Borelli Award, American Society of Biomechanics, 2002 (for "outstanding career accomplishment" and "exemplary contributions to the field of biomechanics")
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 2002
  • Virginia G. and Robert E. Gill Chair, University of California, Berkeley, 2005-2010
  • Honorary Degree, Gettysburg College, 2006
  • Rachel Carson Award, American Geophysical Union (for "cutting-edge ocean science"), 2006
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2007
  • John Martin Award, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, 2008 (for research that "created a paradigm shift in an area of aquatic sciences")
  • Muybridge Award, International Society of Biomechanics (ISB's "highest honor"), 2009
  • Honorary Degree, Bates College, 2009
  • Li Ka Shing Distinguished Lecturer (China), 2011
  • Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of Comparative Biomechanics, an award started in 2015 and given for the best student talk at the annual meeting was named the "Mimi A.R. Koehl and Steven Wainwright Award"
  • Simons Fellow, Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge (U.K.), 2017
  • Distinguished Alumni Award, The Graduate School at Duke University, 2018
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society, elected 2018

Photograph of Koehl doing field work scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef

Education

  • B.A. in Biology with Departmental Honors, Magna Cum Laude, Gettysburg College
  • Ph.D. in Zoology, Duke University (advisor: Steven Wainwright)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington (advisor: Richard Strathmann)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, University of York, England (advisor: John Currey)

Cover of a book about Koehl called "Nature's Machines"

Book about M. Koehl

Articles about M. Koehl

  • Profiled in Discover magazine:
    Franklin, D. (1991) The shape of life. Discover 12: 10-15.
  • One of the women featured in a book:
    Schatz, H. (1993) Gifted Women. San Francisco: Pacific Photographic Press. 120 pp.
  • One of the people featured in:
    Smith, A.D. (1995) Bay area brain trust: 101 achievers who make this the smartest place on earth. San Francisco Focus Magazine 42: 30-47.
  • One of the scientists profiled in:
    Sherrer, B.F. and B.S. Sherrer [eds.] (1996) Notable Women Scientists in the Life Sciences. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing. 456 pp.
  • One of the scientists featured in:
    Gladfelter, E.H. (2002) Agassiz's Legacy: Scientists' Reflections on the Value of Field Experience. New York: Oxford University Press. 437 pp.
  • One of the scientists featured in:
    Oakes, E.H. (2002) International Encyclopedia of Women Scientists. New York: Facts on File. 448 pp.
  • Profiled in Berkeleyan (Berkeley Campus News):
    Edelstein, W. (2006) Researchers reach a new audience. Link to article
  • Profiled on the website of the Department of Integrative Biology, Uni. of California, Berkeley, 2007    Link to article
  • Profiled in Science Matters. (2008)    Link to article (PDF)
  • Yeoman, B. (2008) Lobsta Got to Sniff Dinosaurs Got to Fly. Duke Magazine . September October 2008.    Link to article (PDF)
  • Zakrewsky, J. (2007) At Waters Edge. Gettysburg A Magazine for Gettysburg College Alumni, Parents, and Friends . Winter 2007.    Link to article (PDF)