Pincelli M. Hull

• Year

  2023

• Program

  Schmidt Science Polymaths

• Institution

  Yale University

• Field of Study

  Earth and Planetary Science

• Location

  New Haven, USA

Dr. Pincelli M. Hull (Celli) is an Associate Professor in the Yale University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an Associate Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology in the Yale Peabody Museum. Leveraging her broad training in ecology, oceanography, paleontology, evolutionary biology, geochemistry, and earth system science, Dr. Hull seeks to understand how the tangled web of life has continuously shaped, and been shaped by, the Earth system. The ultimate goal of her research is to answer fundamental questions regarding the dynamics, resilience, collapse, reassembly, and function of living systems, in order to better predict how ecosystems will respond to intensifying modification by humanity. Her group harnesses the power of the fossil record to understand the biosphere with varied techniques, including natural history observations and field science, biological and chemical lab work, bioinformatics, morphometrics, modeling, and machine learning. With interdisciplinary teams, Dr. Hull’s has advanced our understanding of the causes and consequences of mass extinctions, abrupt global warming events, and biotic and environmental dynamics across time scales and in different background states. Her collaborative efforts have enabled a paradigm shift in our understanding of the causes and consequences of mass extinctions, demonstrating that widespread ecological change alone may be sufficient to drive evolutionary and ecological transformations observed across past extinction events. Visit the Hull Lab website for more information on their work.