Ellen Druffel is an American oceanographer and isotope geochemist known for her research using radiocarbon to track marine processes.
Druffel is a professor who holds the Fred Kavli Endowed Chair in Earth System Science at U.C.
In 1990, Druffel received the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union.
The Ruth Patrick Award is given "to honor outstanding research by a scientist in the application of basic aquatic science principles to the identification, analysis and/or solution of important environmental problems.".
[3] Druffel's Ruth Patrick award acknowledged "her sustained critical contributions on the composition and age of dissolved, particulate, and sedimentary carbon and for furthering the understanding of the processes governing the fate and distribution of oceanic carbon and the important role that the oceans play in global carbon flux.