RESEARCH INTERESTS: Mark Hay is an experimental marine ecologist known for his work on community, marine, and chemical ecology. He holds the Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology and is a Regents Professor. His research has heightened our understanding of marine ecosystems, helped found the field of marine chemical ecology, provided key insights regarding the conservation and restoration of coral reefs, and challenged how scientists view ecological and evolutionary processes affecting the establishment and impact of invasive species. Hay commonly works with media outlets (NY Times, National Geographic, NPR, BBC, Animal Planet, etc.) to assure that basic findings from his group are made accessible to the general public.
He has participated in dozens of ship-based expeditions but more commonly works at remote field stations to conduct longer-term experiments. He has conducted 10,000+ scuba dives and four saturation diving missions (using both Hydrolab and Aquarius) – where scientists live and work at depth on a coral reef for periods of 10 days. He is identified by ISI’s Web-of-Sciences and by ScholarGPS as one of the world’s most cited researchers in the area of Ecology and the Environment.
TEACHING INTERESTS: Hay’s teaching focuses on marine ecology and chemical ecology and places special emphasis on rigorous experimental design and how to most logically and effectively pose and rigorously address hypotheses. His classes use the primary scientific literature rather than books, and students thus not learn only the facts but how they are gathered and evaluated, how science progresses, and the approach of clear formulation and testing of hypotheses can be used not only in science, but in every-day life.
RECENT AWARDS:
2024 Ranked by ScholarGPS in the top 0.03% of all scientists in terms of impact and the top 0.01% in terms of quality.
2023 Editorial Board – Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (ongoing)
Ecology and Evolution Leader Award from Research.com
2022 Elected to Membership, U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Elected to Membership, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Chair, The Explorers Club, Atlanta Chapter
Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Marine Biology and Oceanography (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil)
2021 An undergraduate that I provided with a summer research experience 40+ years ago established the “Mark Hay – Walker Smith Research Scholarship Fund” for undergraduates at Western Kentucky University to fund similar research experiences for undergraduates.
2019 A founding member of The Nature Conservancy's Palmyra Science Advisory Board
Co-organizer for the International Society of Chemical Ecology Annual Meeting
Advisory Council for the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network and Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) Program (ongoing)
2018 Awarded the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal by the US National Academy of Sciences
The Mote Eminent Scholar in Marine Biology
Selected (as the only outside scientist) to advise The Nature Conservancy on developing a strategy for optimizing use of the Palmyra Field Station
2016 International Society of Chemical Ecology Silver Medal (the Society’s Highest Honor)
Fellow, Ecological Society of America
Associate Editor – Science Advances (ongoing)
Outstanding Faculty Research Author Award (For producing the most impactful publications from Georgia Tech over the previous 5 years)
2015 Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club (Visionaries of Conservation: Paradigm Shifts in Protecting the Planet)
Explorers Club National Fellow
2014 Regents’ Professor (the highest academic status bestowed by the University System of Georgia)
2013 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS (for “…developing marine chemical ecology and for elucidating how chemical cues and signals structure populations, communities, and ecosystems.”)
2012 Cody Award in Ocean Sciences (recognizes outstanding scientific achievement in Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Earth Science)
2011 Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (Ga Tech’s highest faculty award)
2010 Hall of Distinguished Alumni, University of Kentucky
RECENT PUBLICATIONS: (from >250 total)
Hay ME, Williams TM, and Power ME. 2025. James A. Estes: An ecologist’s quest to understand nature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122: 44 e2526847122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2526847122
Maritan AJ, Clements CS, Pratte ZA, Hay ME, Stewart FJ. 2025. Sea cucumber grazing linked to enrichment of anaerobic microbial metabolisms in coral reef sediments. ISME wraf088, https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.1093/ismejo/wraf088
Altman-Kurosaki NT, Pratte ZA, Stewart F, Hay ME. 2025. Coral–algal competition: allelopathy, temporal variance, and effects on coral microbiomes. Coral Reefs 44:49-62, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-024-02585-7
Altman-Kurosaki NT and Hay ME. 2024. Interactions between consumer access and nutrient enrichment have divergent impacts on two common Pacific corals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 750: 53-63. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14737
Clements CS, Ladd MC, Gallagher JP, Hay ME. 2024. Coral performance is comparable when transplanted to disparate reef sites despite divergent histories of reef decline and recovery. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 748: 53–67, https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14712
Clements, CS, Pratte ZA, Steward FJ, Hay ME. 2024. Biodiversity of macroalgae does not differentially suppress coral performance: the other side of a biodiversity issue. Ecology 024;e4329.
Clements, CS, Pratte ZA, Steward FJ, Hay ME. 2024. Removal of marine detritivores increases coral disease. Nature Communication. 15, 1338 (2024) DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45730-0 - covered by “All Things Considered” on NPR, go to: https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1237026196/the-lowly-sea-cucumber-may-be-helping-to-protect-coral-reefs-against-disease'
Willert MS, France CAM, Baldwin CC, Hay ME. 2023. Historic trophic decline in New England’s coastal marine ecosystem. Oecologia 202:455-463.
Clements CS and Hay ME. 2023. Disentangling the impacts of macroalgae on corals via effects on their microbiomes. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11:1083341. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1083341
Vega-Thurber R and Hay ME. 2023. Mystery solved? Disease detectives identify the cause of a mass die-off in the sea. Science Advances 9 (16), eadh5478
