Deborah French-McCay, PhD, is the Director of Research and Model Development for RPS Ocean Science. She received her PhD in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 1984. Dr French-McCay is an internationally recognized expert in oil spill fate and effects modeling for response planning, risk assessments and impact evaluations. She leads development of RPS’s oil and chemical spill models (SIMAP and CHEMMAP), which are applied world-wide. In support of the US government’s natural resource damage assessment for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April-July 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. French McCay modeled oil transport, fate, exposure, toxic effects, and production foregone to evaluate injuries for water column organisms. She has been principal investigator and primary author of more than one hundred technical reports and papers evaluating oil trajectory and fate, exposure, effects, and ecological risks.