Headshot of Daniel Palacios

Endowed Associate Professor in Whale Habitats, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences
he/him

daniel.palacios@oregonstate.edu

Office: ‭(541) 867-0266‬

Profile Field Tabs

Biography
Credentials: 
NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate, NOAA/SWFSC/Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory, 2003–2004
Ph.D., Oceanography, Oregon State University, 2003
B.Sc., Marine Biology, University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá, Colombia, 1994
Research/Career Interests: 

Dr. Daniel Palacios is the lead of the Whale Habitat, Ecology & Telemetry Laboratory (WHET Lab) at the Marine Mammal Institute (MMI). His current research interests are in:

  • Quantitative ecology and habitat modeling
  • Analysis and visualization of telemetry and bio-logging data
  • Characterization of critical habitat for large whales
  • Study of long-distance migration and navigation in whales

Dr. Palacios's background is in oceanography, with a primary focus on understanding the environmental factors that influence the ecology of marine megafauna in pelagic ecosystems. Prior to joining the MMI faculty in 2013, Dr. Palacios worked for 10 years at NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory as a member of the Tagging of Pelagic Predators (TOPP) program. As part of this program, from 2004 to 2012 he participated in multi-disciplinary projects studying the movements and habitat associations of blue and humpback whales, elephant seals, Hawaiian albatrosses, leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, and white sharks using electronic tags and remote sensing. His postdoctoral research in 2003-2004 was also at NOAA’s Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory, where he focused on describing interannual-to-decadal variations in the climate of the California Current System. For his 2003 Ph.D. dissertation at Oregon State University he studied the community ecology of cetaceans inhabiting the waters around the Galápagos Islands based on data collected during a year-long expedition to this archipelago in 1993-1994, while working with the Ocean Alliance. His 1994 B.Sc. thesis from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Colombia was on the population status and breeding ecology of a seabird colony in the Caribbean Sea.

Hailing from Colombia, Dr. Palacios remains actively involved in promoting research and science advancement in Latin America as an active member of both the Sociedad Latinoamericana de Especialistas en Mamíferos Acuáticos (SOLAMAC) and the Sociedad Mexicana de Mastozoología Marina (SOMEMMA).

Please click on the My Publications tab to view Dr. Palacios's publications and intellectual contributions. For citation indices and article-level metrics, visit Dr. Palacios's Google Scholar Citations Profile.

Interested in joining the WHET Lab as an undergraduate intern, graduate student, or postdoc? Please read Dr. Palacios's guidance in his:

Responsibilities: 
President-elect, Society for Marine Mammalogy, 2023-2025
Member, Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals, U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, 2022–present
Member, Advisory Board, SARGADOM Project for the governance of the Costa Rica Thermal Dome and the Sargasso Sea, 2021–2026
Member, Pacific Scientific Review Group, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, 2020–2023
Member, Steering Committee (Technical Advisory Panel), Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) system, Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI), 2017–present
Member, Aquatic Mammals Working Group, Scientific Council, Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), 2013–present
Member, Cetacean Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN, 2011–present
Member, Scientific Committee, International Whaling Commission, 2008–present
Chair, Ecosystem Modelling Working Group, Scientific Committee, International Whaling Commission, 2012–2015
Associate Editor, Marine Mammal Science (Society for Marine Mammalogy), 2019–2023
Review Editor, Frontiers in Marine Science (specialty: Marine Megafauna), 2017–present
Editor-in-Chief, Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals (LAJAM), 2009–2014
Professional Affiliations: 
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM)
Sociedad Latioamericana de Especialistas en Mamíferos Acuáticos (SOLAMAC)
Honors and Awards: 
Endowed Professorship in Whale Habitats, 2018-present
Service: 
Member, ad-hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, Society for Marine Mammalogy, 2019–2020
At OSU
Affiliated with: 
Whale Habitat, Ecology, & Telemetry (WHET) Lab
Marine Mammal Institute
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Sciences
Headquarters: 
Hatfield Marine Science Center
My Publications