Deirdre Lyons

Assistant Professor, Marine Biology, Center for Marine Biotechnology & Biomedicine

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

Deirdre Lyons is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Deirdre became interested in questions about the origins and evolution of animal body plans as an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College. She received her doctorate in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. Deirdre established her own research group at UC San Diego in 2016. At UC San Diego she served as a Leaders for Equity Advancement and Diversity (LEAD) Fellow, and received the Chancellor’s Outstanding Postdoctoral Scholar Award. Deirdre recently received a NSF CAREER award to develop the first developmental biology laboratory course at UC San Diego. This course provides UC San Diego undergraduate students and local highschool students the opportunity to conduct authentic research during the academic year. This is one of several local and national efforts that she participates in to diversify the STEM workforce through access to research and structured mentoring.