Valerie Paul is currently Director of the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida. She received her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego in 1979 with majors in Biology and Studies in Chemical Ecology and her Ph.D. in Marine Biology in 1985 from the University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Paul joined the faculty of the University of Guam Marine Laboratory in 1985, served as Director of the Laboratory from 1991-1994, and as full Professor from 1993-2002. Valerie’s research interests include marine chemical ecology, marine plant-herbivore interactions, coral reef ecology, and marine natural products. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996 and was elected and served as chairperson of the Marine Natural Products Gordon Research Conference in 2000 (vice-chair in 1998). She currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Coral Reefs and Journal of Natural Products. She is the author or co-author of over 160 research papers and review articles.