Tammy Frank received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she has worked at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution as a biological oceanographer since 1991.

She had a wobbly start in marine biology, as she was told on a high-school aptitude test that she should become a florist. In college, she was told that marine biology jobs were few and far between, but she persevered in her chosen field of study. She excelled in school, and earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Aquatic Biology. Then she went looking for that elusive marine biology job. She accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in biophysics (not marine biology) at the University of Connecticut Medical School. From there, she went to Oregon, where she studied the effects of insecticides (not marine biology). After four years as a scientist, she finally found her much desired, actual marine biology position at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution!

Tammy is currently working in collaboration with fellow Harbor Branch scientist, Dr. Edith Widder, on determining how downwelling light controls the behavior and distribution patterns of midwater animals.