Dr. Caterina Panzeca earned a B.S. (2000) in Geology, and an M.S. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) in Marine Environmental Science from The State University of New York at Stony Brook. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California where her scientific research primarily involved studying the cycling of trace metals and organic nutrients in marine environments, and their influence on phytoplankton metabolism. Dr. Panzeca held lectureships at New York University and Iona College before she joined the Science Department faculty at The State University of New York at Maritime College as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science in the fall of 2013. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Marine Environmental Science Program.

In her first semester she was instrumental in developing a hands-on field course. As the capstone experience for Marine Environmental Science (MES) students, the course exposes students to the field and laboratory techniques commonly used to address marine environmental problems. This course also launched a water quality monitoring program focusing on the impacts of combined sewer overflows in the East River. Dr. Panzeca is interested in research which focuses on the effects of urban environments and climate change on local marine waters.