Randi Rotjan

coral biologist, New England Aquarium

Randi Rotjan is a marine ecologist at the New England Aquarium. She works with a diverse array of organisms in exotic habitats, including tropical coral reefs, rocky intertidal ecosystems, and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Her main scientific interests center around the performance of ecosystem engineers (organisms with a disproportionate influence on their habitat, such as trees or corals or tubeworms), and how factors such as ecology, symbiosis, and behavior indirectly drive the structuring of various marine habitats.