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For further information, contact the MBL Communications Office at (508) 289-7423 or e-mail us at comm@mbl.edu
For Immediate Release: July 27, 2007
Contact: Gina Hebert, MBL, 508-289-7725; ghebert@mbl.edu
Marine Life Census Topic of August 2 Lecture at the MBL
MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA—The Census of Marine Life, a first-of-its-kind endeavor to describe all life in the world’s oceans, will be the topic of an August 2nd Director's Seminar at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory). The presentation will be given by Jesse Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University and Program Director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Mr. Ausubel’s lecture, titled "Counting all the fish in the sea: The progress of the Census of Marine Life research program," will take place at 4:00 PM in the Lillie Auditorium, MBL Street, Woods Hole. The public is invited to attend.
From microbes to mammals, Arctic to Antarctic, abyss to surface, and near shore to mid-ocean, scientists from 80 countries are producing the first Census of Marine Life. The project, to be completed in 2010, will assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of ocean life. Mr. Ausubel, who helped initiate the Census, will report its progress in this special MBL Director's Seminar.
Mr. Ausubel serves on the faculty of The Rockefeller University, where he seeks to elaborate the technical vision of a large, prosperous society that emits little or nothing harmful and spares large amounts of land and sea for nature. He spent the first decade of his career working for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. On behalf of the Academies, Mr. Ausubel was one of the main organizers of the first U.N. World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1979. He was also the main author of the 1983 NRC report Changing Climate, the first comprehensive review of the greenhouse effect.
Since 1994 Mr. Ausubel has served concurrently as a Program Director for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, helping to bring the Census of Marine Life into existence. He is also currently engaged in creating an on-line "Encyclopedia of Life" to provide a web page for every animal, plant, and other form of life on Earth.
Educated at Harvard and Columbia Universities, Mr. Ausubel serves on several editorial boards, including The Journal of Industrial Ecology, and is a University Fellow of Resources for the Future and an adjunct faculty member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The MBL® is a leading international, independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to discovery and to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences. Founded in 1888 as the Marine Biological Laboratory, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Western Hemisphere. For more information, visit www.MBL.edu
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