Capital Campaign Heads into Homestretch
With $180 million already committed, the WHOI $200 million Depth of Leadership campaign has reached 90 percent of its goal, heading into its final year.
“This is a remarkable achievement, thanks to the generosity of hundreds of WHOI friends, foundations, and corporations,” said WHOI Trustee and Campaign Committee Chairman Bill Kealy. “Funds raised are supporting the four Ocean Institutes established in 2000, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in our outstanding education program, and grants to scientists and engineers that have taken them around the globe—from the Arctic and Antarctica to remote tropical regions in between.”
Campaign funds have supported two new, much-needed laboratories on the WHOI Quissett campus: the Stanley W. Watson biogeochemistry lab and the Marine Research Facility, which is devoted to the study and conservation of marine mammals. Contributions brought the coastal research vessel Tioga into the WHOI fleet in 2004. And they have seeded ocean engineering developments such as the new long-core system for the research vessel Knorr, which can capture seafloor sediment samples that extend scientists’ ability to study the oceans and climate change.
Kealy assumed chairmanship of the Campaign Committee from Newt Merrill, who was elected chairman of the WHOI Board of Trustees in May 2007.
“Newt did the heavy lifting on the campaign so far, and we will continue to work diligently to secure the remaining $20 million by—or before—the end of 2008,” Kealy said. “We have assured our new president, Susan Avery, that this will be accomplished. But we will need all the help we can muster to find new friends and supporters as we move forward over the next several months. Please take a look at the Institution’s campaign Web site at www.whoi.edu (Support WHOI) and think about partnering with us in this vital effort.”