An electronic newsletter from the Marine Biological Laboratory
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Message from the Director
I’m taking a few minutes away from writing my latest grant proposal—due on Tuesday—to send greetings and best wishes for the New Year to all of you and to update you on some of the latest news from the MBL.
Today I’m happy to be office-bound. The wind in Woods Hole is gusting out of the south/southwest at 36 mph and the chill of winter is in the air. Until very recently, temperatures haven’t dipped much below 50 degrees most days—unseasonably warm weather, I’m told, for Woods Hole.
And that’s good news for the MBL. Warmer temperatures mean lower heating bills. And warmer temperatures also keep the contractors renovating the Rowe Laboratory (the new name of the Whitman building) working at full capacity. I’m pleased to report that the project continues to go smoothly. It’s on time and on budget. I invite you to follow our progress by viewing a regularly updated slide show available on the
MBL’s home page.
I’m also happy to note that the
2007 Friday Evening Lecture Series has been finalized. Speakers include 2006 Nobel Laureate Craig Mello, renowned MIT biomedical engineer, Robert Langer; two of our many distinguished MBL course directors, Lee Niswander (Embryology) and Mike Dickinson (Neural Systems & Behavior); recent MBL Board member and TIGR President/Director Claire Fraser-Liggett; as well as Sohaila Rastan, the Wellcome Trust’s Director of Science Funding; and Hugh Ducklow, the new director of the MBL’s Ecosystems Center. Rounding out the series is Forbes Lecturer Allison Doupe of UCSF, and myself.
This year’s series was developed with the help of a selection committee composed of Bill Beers, Marlene Belfort, Paul De Weer, Hugh Ducklow, Gerald Fischbach, Richard Harland, Timothy Mitchison, Mitch Sogin, and Clare Waterman-Storer. I am most grateful to them for their help in this endeavor. The committee will meet again early this summer to begin planning for the 2008 series. The committee—and I—welcome your nominations. Please send them to us via Pam Hinkle’s office at
pclapp@mbl.edu.
Finally, as I mentioned above, the MBL looks forward to welcoming Hugh Ducklow to the
Ecosystems Center this spring. Hugh is a marine ecologist who studies plankton dynamics and biogeochemistry. He brings to the MBL a National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research Program focused at Palmer Station in Antarctica. Hugh is currently the Glucksman Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at the College of William and Mary. His research centers on the interactions between climate change and ecosystem function, especially on the Antarctic Peninsula, a region that is warming especially fast.
I look forward to sharing more good news about the MBL with you in the very near future. In the meantime, best wishes for a happy and healthy 2007.
Gary Borisy, Director and CEO
