[3] Upon graduation, Benitez-Nelson was named a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaii[4] as well as a School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) Young Investigator.

[6] Benitez-Nelson’s research centers on the mechanisms that influence the formation, composition, and downward transport of material from the surface ocean to depth.

This research directly relates to biological production and diversity and the ocean’s role in the uptake and sequestration of greenhouse gases, nutrients, toxins and trace metals.

She has authored or coauthored more than 130 articles, which have been published in premier, high impact journals such as PlosOne, Geophysical Research Letters, Nature and Science, and has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on substantial, multi-year research and education grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), among others.

[7] Her research has received international acclaim and includes the Early Career Award[8] in Oceanography from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Fulbright and Marie Curie Fellowships, and being named National Academies of Science/Humboldt Foundation Kavli Fellow, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, and a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).