Press Room
A local scientist has been honored by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Assistant Scientist Steve Jayne of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was presented the 2002 Zeldovich Award by the Committee on Space Research and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues will gain critical environmental information from the Air-Sea Interaction Tower (ASIT) being built off the south shore of Martha’s Vineyard. Construction of the tripod-shaped tower began in August and is expected to be completed in late September. The tower will be linked to the Institution’s Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), which was built and installed several years ago off South Beach near the Katama Airfield.
Abrupt climate change, ships and ocean observatories, coastal management, biodiversity and genetics, hydrothermal vents and the deep biosphere will be among the topics discussed by Woods Hole scientists with members of the presidentially-appointed U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy during a July 22 visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic in April 1912 had many connections to Woods Hole, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the US Coast Guard, the first the creation of the International Ice Patrol just two years after the sinking. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution gained international attention when it found the wreck of the sunken luxury liner in 1985 and explored it again in detail the following year. Many other connections exist as well, among them the major role of a former WHOI Director in ice research.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has established a major journalism award to recognize an outstanding record of achievement in communicating ocean science to the public. The award, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Award for Excellence in Ocean Science Journalism, will be given for a body of work that enhances public awareness of, interest in, and understanding of the ocean sciences and was published or broadcast within the last five years. The $5,000 cash prize and award will be presented in Woods Hole for the first time in the fall of 2003, with the recipient presenting a lecture or seminar on an appropriate science journalism topic at that time.
Fourteen new Trustees and Corporation Members were elected at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s recent spring meetings in Woods Hole. Officers of the Corporation and one Honorary Member were also elected, and 17 Trustees and Members were re-elected.
The “Rose Garden” – one of the most well-visited and lush communities of seafloor vent life – may have been paved over by a recent volcanic eruption. But scientists on a just-completed expedition near the Galapagos Islands have discovered a thriving new community of very young tubeworms, clams, and mussels, which they have called “Rosebud.”
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Director and President Robert Gagosian and Senior Scientist John Whitehead of the Physical Oceanography Department were recently elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest learned societies in the nation. Drs. Gagosian and Whitehead are among the 177 Fellows and 30 Foreign Honorary Members elected to the 2002 Class, which includes a United States Senator and a Representative, four college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners, six Pulitzer Prize winners, three MacArthur Fellows and six Guggenheim Fellows.
In 1977, scientists made a stunning discovery on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that forever changed our understanding of our planet and life on it. They discovered the first deep-sea hydrothermal vents, andA?to their complete surpriseA?a lush community of exotic life thriving around them.
A local scientist has been honored by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences with its highest honors. Scientist Emeritus John Hunt of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor of Albert Einstein by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, United States section, for “outstanding contributions in the field of geology.” The medal is the highest award conferred by the Academy.
After a long and extensive search process, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has appointed Carolyn A. Bunker of Falmouth Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. The appointment, announced today by WHOI Director and President Robert Gagosian, is effective immediately.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation of Somerset, MA, signed a contract today to build a 60-foot vessel to replace the Institution’s aging 46-foot coastal vessel Asterias. Construction of the new vessel is estimated at a cost of $1.6 million, with delivery expected in March 2004.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will present one of its highest honors, the Mary Sears Woman Pioneer in Oceanography Award, to California Biologist Mary Wilcox Silver. A Professor of Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Dr. Silver is being honored for providing “significant scientific leadership in understanding our marine environment” and recognized for providing “the inspiration and/or opportunity for other women in marine sciences.” Colleagues note that she has “led the way for people with strong family commitments to go to sea, showing that scientists could combine challenging, field-based careers with family life.”
The Falmouth-based landscape architectural firm Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects is receiving a prestigious award for work on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s new Quissett Campus master plan.
Nelson Hogg, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), will receive the 2002 Stommel Award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS) January 16 during the society’s 82nd annual meeting in Orlando, FL. AMS is the nation’s leading professional society for scientists in the atmospheric and related sciences.
Farming practices in the Mississippi River drainage area are affecting coastal ocean waters off Louisiana and the coastal water quality in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, a leading researcher in this field, will share some of her findings when she receives the 12th Bostwick H. Ketchum Award January 16 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) report in today’s issue of the journal Nature that the population growth rate of North Atlantic Right whales has declined below replacement level because of increased mortality rates of mothers. The population numbers only about 300 and is predicted to become extinct within 200 years if the environmental conditions experienced by the whales in 1995 were maintained.
Two scientists have been recognized by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for their contributions to ocean sciences research. Drs. Daniel J. Fornari of the Geology and Geophysics Department and Rui Xin Huang of the Physical Oceanography Department have been named recipients of a W. Van Alan Clark Chair for Excellence in Oceanography at the Institution. Each endowed chair brings financial support for a period of five years, allowing the recipient the freedom to pursue a variety of career interests. The awards were announced today during the Institution’s fall meeting of the Board of Trustees and Members of the Corporation and are effective January 1, 2002.
Students from Canada, Slovakia, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago are spending two weeks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) participating in a research camp focused on coastal environmental research. The students won an international competition to participate in the camp, the first held in the United States.
When the new U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker HEALY departs Tromso, Norway, July 31 for a two-month cruise across the Arctic Ocean, scientists won’t be studying the ice cap but the seafloor far below. Their focus will be the Gakkel Ridge, three miles beneath the ocean surface, the slowest spreading ridge on earth. It is a window into the earth’s interior scientists hope will help fill a gap in their knowledge of how the earth’s crust forms.