Austin Gallagher

Early life and education

After graduating from Thayer Academy near his home city of Boston, MA in 2004, Gallagher moved to Baltimore, MD to attend Loyola University Maryland where he majored in biology and minored in journalism. He then obtained a Master’s in Marine Science from Northeastern University in Boston as part of the Three Seas Program in 2010, and went on to receive his doctorate in environmental science from the University of Miami in 2015. He still maintains close affiliations at all three universities.

Professional Research

Gallagher is a broadly-trained biologist focusing on studying survival in wild animals, including some of the planet’s largest and most threatened species such as sharks and other terrestrial predators. He is known for his expertise on sharks, focusing on advancing our understanding their movements, stress, nutrition and energy, and reproduction, with the purposes of advancing their conservation worldwide. He has been credited as being one of the first scientists to demonstrate that sharks were worth more alive for tourism than dead for fishing, and he also helped discover the largest aggregation of pregnant apex predatory sharks in the world. He was the first PhD student in the famous Shark Research and Conservation Program at the University of Miami, where he published over 25 papers as a graduate student. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami, collaborating on research with Dr. Neil Hammerschlag and mentoring graduate students. Gallagher completed a post-doctoral research program at Carleton University with Dr. Steve Cooke, looking at the effects of stress on freshwater and coral reef fishes. In 2016 he received a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct research on deer and large carnivores in British Columbia through Western University. He is currently engaged in research on 4 continents ranging from sharks to coyotes, and has a rich network of academic colleagues.

Entrepreneurship

Gallagher is the founder and CEO of Beneath the Waves, a global platform for ocean conservation, education, and discovery. The mission of Beneath the Waves is to raise awareness regarding critical marine issues, foster the advancement of science, and promote the protection of our oceans. Since 2010, Gallagher has hosted events through this platform in over 20 countries and directly reached over 20,000 people worldwide. He has also activated Beneath the Waves into some of the most influential communities and pop-culture events in the world, including Summit Series, the 1 Hotel, Tortuga Music Festival, and Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. As CEO, Gallagher works with leading brands and properties to advance conservation efforts and increase corporate social responsibility.

Awards

In 2016, Gallagher became the first American marine biologist to make the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, at the age of 29. He was also the only conservation biologist on the list in 2016. His relationship with the Forbes community has expanded, as he currently is a member of the Forbes Non Profit Council, an invitation-only group of CEOs of successful nonprofits generating over $500,000 in annual revenue.

In April 2016 he was awarded the Loyola University Young Alumni Award, and in the same month he gave a TEDx talk in San Diego, CA on facing your fears to change the world. In 2015 he led the first ever multi-national expedition to study sharks in Japan, which was featured as the cover story of the February 2016 issue of Outside Magazine and covered by GoPro.