Professor Marc Mangel was educated at the University of Illinois (BS in Physics 1971 with High Honors, MS in Biophysics 1972), where he was an EJ James Scholar, NIH Trainee in biophysics and elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa, and the University of British Columbia (PhD in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, with a focus on Mathematical Biology, 1978). He worked for the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA, the research and development center for the US Navy) from Nov 1977-Aug 1980. Work done for CNA lead to the Koopman Paper Prize from the Operations Research Society of America (1982) and the JASA Applications Paper from the American Statistical Association (1983).
In 1980, Mangel moved to the University of California, Davis, where he served as Assistant, Associate and Full Professor for eight years in the Department of Mathematics and eight years in the Department of Zoology/Section of Evolution and Ecology. He chaired the Department of Mathematics (1984-1989) and was founding Director of the Center for Population Biology.
In 1996, Mangel moved to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Chair of the Department of Technology and Information Management, and Fellow of Stevenson College; he has also directed the Geographic Information Systems Laboratory (1996-1999) and served as Associate Vice Chancellor, Planning and Programs (1997-1999). In the latter capacity, he co-chaired the UCSC strategic planning effort. In 2002, he was appointed as Director, Center for Stock Assessment Research, which is a partnership between the UCSC and the Santa Cruz Laboratory of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Mangel has held visiting positions as Scheinbrun Professor of Botany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Fall 1987; Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Hilary and Trinity terms, 1988 and Trinity term 2007; Rose and Max Varon Professor, Weizmann Institute of Science, 1994; Mote Eminent Scholar, Florida State University, 2000; and Dozor Professor, Ben Gurion University, 2000.
His awards include the Joseph Myerhoff Fellowship, Weizmann Institute of Science, 1987; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, 1987; Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Oxford University, 1988; George Gund Foundation Distinguished Environmental Scholar,1992; Distinguished Statistical Ecologist, International Association for Ecology, 1998; Mote Eminent Scholar, Florida State University, 2000; Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, 2000; Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2003;UCSC Academic Senate Excellence in Teaching Award, 2003; Frohlich Fellow at CSIRO Hobart, 2006; Astor Lecturer, University of Oxford, 2007; JIMAR Fellow, University of Hawaii 2008; and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2009.
His service to federal and international panels includes the Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources, the Bellman Prize Committee, Mathematical Biosciences; the SIAM-AMS Committee on Mathematics in the Life Sciences, the Pitelka Award Committee, International Society for Behavioral Ecology; the National Marine Fisheries Service Ecosystem Advisory Panel; the Council of the American Institute of Biological Sciences; International Academic Advisory Board, The Arava Institute of Environmental Studies; Board of Science, Resilience Alliance, the NMFS Salmon Recovery Science Review Panl, and the Science Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. In 2004, he was appointed to (and now Chairs) the Special Committee on Seals, which advises the British government on the status and conservation of seals in the UK.
His editorial appointments include the editorial boards of Natural Resources Modelling, Operations Research, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Ecological Applications, Theoretical Population Biology,SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics,Journal of Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Biosciences, Evolutionary Ecology/Evolutionary Ecology Research, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Oecologia, The American Naturalist. He was co-editor of Behavioral Ecology 1994-1999.
He has served as external examiner or opponent of PhD students in North America, Great Britain, Europe, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
His research program in mathematical and theoretical biology, focuses on ecology, evolution and behavior and the broad goal of combining first-rate basic science with important applied questions. Work in the group includes the evolutionary ecology of growth, aging and longevity, quantitative issues in fisheries management, the population biology of disease, and the evolutionary ecology of stem cells and their niches.
Mangel has numerous journal publications and books that include Decision and Control in Uncertain Resource Systems (1985, Academic), Dynamic Modeling in Behavioral Ecology (with Colin Clark, 1988, Princeton), The Ecological Detective. Confronting models with data (with Ray Hilborn, 1997, Princeton), Dynamic State Variable Models in Ecology: Methods and Applications (with Colin Clark, 2000, Oxford), and The Theoretical Biologist’s Toolbox. Quantitative methods for ecology and evolutionary biology (Cambridge, 2007). He has edited Classics of Theoretical Biology (A Special Issue of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. Part I: Volume 52 Numbers 1,2. Part II: Volume 53, Numbers 1,2), Sex Allocation and Sex Change: Experiments and Models (Lectures on Mathematics in the Life Sciences, Volume 22) and Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Krill (Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57(Supplement 3).
He has supervised more than 50 undergraduate research projects or senior theses, 25 PhD students and more than 27 post-doctoral colleagues; he has served on more than 30 Ph.D. Committees. His students and post-docs work at a diversity of organizations, including universities (UC Berkeley, Penn State, Toronto, Ben-Gurion, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, Washington University, Duke, Wesleyan, Massachusetts, Utah, UCLA, Eastern Illinois, Yale, University of San Diego), private concerns (Bank of America, Brooklyn Zoo), governmental agencies (National Marine Fisheries Service, Portuguese Government, Livermore National Laboratory, CNRS Lyon).