Peter B. de Menocal is the eleventh president and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as of 2020. A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, de Menocal’s research uses deep sea ocean sediments as archives of how and why Earth’s ocean and climate have changed in the past and to predict how they may change in the future. Prior to assuming leadership of WHOI, de Menocal was the Thomas Alva Edison/Con Edison Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2015, he became the founding director of Columbia’s Center for Climate & Life, a research accelerator of 120 scientists and other experts dedicated to understanding how climate affects life’s essentials—the security of food, water and shelter—and exploring sustainable energy solutions in partnership with industry, finance and government.