Laurence Madin, a transplanted fourth-generation Californian, makes his
home in Massachusetts studying gelatinous animals such as medusae,
siphonophores, ctenophores, and pelagic tunicates. Growing up in the
San Francisco Bay Area, he developed an appreciation for the natural
world and the sea. He received an A.B. degree from the University of
California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in zoology from UC Davis, having
spent some of graduate school on a Bahamian island, helping pioneer the
use of scuba diving to study plankton. Since coming to WHOI in 1974, he
has also used submersibles and remotely operated vehicles to explore
strange jelly creatures in deep water.
Current projects include
dynamics of salp blooms in the Atlantic and Antarctica; predation on
larval fishes on Georges Bank; biogeography of plankton and fishes in
the open ocean and deep sea; and developing new gizmos for sampling and
exploration. Formerly chair of the Biology Department, Madin is the
current director of the Ocean Life Institute, which has broadened his
interests into tropical ecology, endangered whales, conservation
biology, and policy. He still enjoys diving (even in Antarctica),
photographing, and playing with plankton.
