Margaret Leinen is the director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and vice chancellor for Marine Science at the University of California, San Diego. She is an ocean biogeochemist and paleoceanographer whose research includes the study of ocean carbon cycling and the role of the oceans in climate. Leinen currently is co-chair of the Decade Advisory Board for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. During 2017 and 2018, Leinen was a U.S. Department of State science envoy for the oceans to Latin America and the Pacific. She served as assistant director for geosciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2000-2007. She also has served as the president of the American Geophysical Union, president of the Oceanography Society and chair of the AAAS Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Science. She is a fellow of all three societies and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.