UCSF Scientist Wins Pew Award in Marine and Biomedical Science
Award will support research linking harmful algal blooms to long-term human health risks and strengthens UCSF’s role in global marine health.
UC San Francisco environmental epidemiologist and toxicologist Matthew Gribble, PhD, was named by The Pew Charitable Trusts as the 2026 recipient of the Pew-Hoover Fellowship in Marine and Biomedical Science.
Gribble, associate professor of medicine and associate chief for research in UCSF’s Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, will receive $150,000 over three years to address some of the most critical challenges at the intersection of public health and marine environmental management.
The Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation supports mid-career scientists and other experts seeking solutions to problems affecting the world’s oceans. Gribble joins Pew’s global community of 200 marine fellows from more than 40 countries to expand knowledge of the ocean and advance the sustainable use of marine resources.
The Pew Biomedical Scholars program aims to support innovative scholars whose work is likely to have benefits for improving human health. This program has been running for four decades and has supported more than 1,000 scholars and fellows to launch new scientific directions.
“I am excited to be part of both the Pew Marine Fellows and Pew Biomedical Scholars programs,” said Gribble, founding director of the UCSF Center for Oceans & Human Health. “This is a terrific group of scientists, and I hope that my statistical skills and subject matter expertise as a toxicologist can help support new collaborations across both networks.”
His work through the Pew Fellowship will focus on two geographic areas: southeast Alaska, where Alaska Native communities he has worked with for the last decade have been affected by harmful algal blooms, as well as in Andalucia, Spain. He will map the historical trajectories of past harmful algal blooms in these areas, and these estimates of exposure will be useful for future research on health risks from the toxins made by these harmful algae.
Fellows are selected by an international committee of marine science experts with a range of expertise following a rigorous nomination and review process. The Marine and Biomedical Science Fellowship is jointly administered by the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation and the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences with support from the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation.
Gribble, along with Sheri Weiser, MD, MPH, also will be launching a major partnership between UCSF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Called the UNESCO Chair in Oceans, Clean Water and Health, this will be the first UNESCO Chair in UCSF history.