Mimi's Research

What is coral? Watch people on the street define it. Mimi in her lab.	Mimi Koehl is a scientist, a pioneer among women teaching in higher education and a little sister her brother still calls “Squirt.” She’s also as close to being a certified genius as anyone most of us will ever meet. When she’s not teaching at the University of California Berkeley, she’s likely to be exploring the mysteries of the seas as a sort of underwater detective in science’s hunt for answers to critical questions about sea life. Sometimes she dons snorkel gear to study life among coral reefs. Her work with other scientists off the beautiful coast of Hawaii’s main island, Oahu, has brought new understanding to how the movement of the ocean helps – or hurts – tiny sea creatures that are important parts of the environment. Koehl loves her research. No wonder. It’s a lot like solving a criminal mystery. The answers can be surprising, very satisfying and important. Recently, she and a University of Hawaii scientist led a study of conditions on coral reefs for a kind of sea slug. To their surprise, they found that microscopic larvae have the ability to use scent clues to float onto coral. That’s a matter of life or death. The larvae need to get to the coral to grow into sea slugs. The research showed in detail that the larvae use tiny threads of smells to lead themselves down toward the coral. Koehl is particularly happy that the research even managed to look at the picture the way the little larvae see it. But there was also a nasty surprise. Thick underwater mats of algae are growing over more and more of the reef, making it impossible for the larvae to find a place to land on the living coral.	This may add one more puzzle for scientists trying to find ways to protect the entire environment of the coral reefs. The reefs themselves are not just beautiful but also critical to numerous kinds of fish and to protecting islands from storms. If Koehl’s work can be hard to understand, there is no doubt her reseach can be simply exciting. Even with a bunch of strangers carrying reporters’ notebooks, recorders and cameras, she’s not just smart but warm, confident and funny. As she explains the swooshing motions of waves washing through coral reefs, she throws her hands, hips and head into the action, making the science come to life. All that energy, hard work and love for science brought her a great deal of recognition. Koehl won a MacArthur Fellows Program award, commonly known as an award for those who have demonstrated a genius in science, arts or other fields. In 2002, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, America’s top advisory board on matters involving science and public policy. A series of books on Women’s Adventures in Science A 2005 biography by Deborah Parks, “Nature’s Machines: The story of biomechanist Mimi Koehl,” profiled her as part of a series called Women’s Adventures in Science. As Parks recounts, before his death in 1987, her father, George Koehl, a science professor proudly got to hear her lecture in biology at Gettysburg College, which was honoring her as an outstanding young graduate. Not bad for a squirt whose love for the water drew her family’s attention even as a small child.

What is coral?

Mimi in her lab.

Mimi Koehl is a scientist, a pioneer among women teaching in higher education and a little sister her brother still calls “Squirt.” She’s also as close to being a certified genius as anyone most of us will ever meet.

When she’s not teaching at the University of California Berkeley, she’s likely to be exploring the mysteries of the seas as a sort of underwater detective in science’s hunt for answers to critical questions about sea life. Sometimes she dons snorkel gear to study life among coral reefs. Her work with other scientists off the beautiful coast of Hawaii’s main island, Oahu, has brought new understanding to how the movement of the ocean helps – or hurts – tiny sea creatures that are important parts of the environment.

Koehl loves her research. No wonder. It’s a lot like solving a criminal mystery. The answers can be surprising, very satisfying and important.

Recently, she and a University of Hawaii scientist led a study of conditions on coral reefs for a kind of sea slug. To their surprise, they found that microscopic larvae have the ability to use scent clues to float onto coral. That’s a matter of life or death. The larvae need to get to the coral to grow into sea slugs. The research showed in detail that the larvae use tiny threads of smells to lead themselves down toward the coral. Koehl is particularly happy that the research even managed to look at the picture the way the little larvae see it.

But there was also a nasty surprise. Thick underwater mats of algae are growing over more and more of the reef, making it impossible for the larvae to find a place to land on the living coral.

This may add one more puzzle for scientists trying to find ways to protect the entire environment of the coral reefs. The reefs themselves are not just beautiful but also critical to numerous kinds of fish and to protecting islands from storms.

If Koehl’s work can be hard to understand, there is no doubt her reseach can be simply exciting. Even with a bunch of strangers carrying reporters’ notebooks, recorders and cameras, she’s not just smart but warm, confident and funny. As she explains the swooshing motions of waves washing through coral reefs, she throws her hands, hips and head into the action, making the science come to life.

All that energy, hard work and love for science brought her a great deal of recognition. Koehl won a MacArthur Fellows Program award, commonly known as an award for those who have demonstrated a genius in science, arts or other fields. In 2002, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, America’s top advisory board on matters involving science and public policy.

A series of books on Women’s Adventures in Science A 2005 biography by Deborah Parks, “Nature’s Machines: The story of biomechanist Mimi Koehl,” profiled her as part of a series called Women’s Adventures in Science. As Parks recounts, before his death in 1987, her father, George Koehl, a science professor proudly got to hear her lecture in biology at Gettysburg College, which was honoring her as an outstanding young graduate. Not bad for a squirt whose love for the water drew her family’s attention even as a small child.

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