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Go to Sea, Young Man

In 1965, WHOI microbiologist John Waterbury was a young researcher studying microorganisms in the upper ocean that convert inorganic nitrogen into a form that phytoplankton can use to drive the marine food chain. More recently, he was awarded the 2012 Gilbert Morgan Smith medal by the National Academy of Science for his work underlying major advances in our understanding of marine food webs and the cycling of essential elements in ocean ecosystems. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)