Sally MacIntyre is a limnologist whose research spans lakes from the tropics to the poles and coastal ocean systems. She earned her B.A. and Ph.D. in Zoology at Duke University, with a minor in Mechanical Engineering, before joining UC Santa Barbara, where she is now a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.

Her work investigates the physical processes driving mixing, turbulence, and gas exchange in aquatic systems, and their biogeochemical and ecological consequences. Field studies range from Arctic and Subarctic lakes to East African and Amazonian tropical lakes, Mono Lake in California, and Antarctic coastal waters. By linking small-scale physical processes, such as nonlinear internal waves and surface turbulence, to nutrient fluxes and carbon cycling, her research provides critical insights into how aquatic ecosystems function and how they respond to climate change across local, regional, and global scales.