|
SALLIE
(PENNY) CHISHOLM (2005)
Dr.
Sallie (Penny) W. Chisholm of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), for her insightful and lasting contributions to the fields of
biological oceanography and microbial ecology which have fundamentally
changed our perspective of the nature of life in the sea.
Dr.
Chisholm is a Professor in the Departments of Biology, and Civil and
Environmental Engineering at MIT, Co-Director of the Earth System and
Terrascope Initiatives at MIT, and a Visiting Scientist at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution. She holds a B.A. in Biology / Chemistry from
Skidmore College and a Ph.D. in Biology from the State University of New
York at Albany. Dr. Chisholm is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, the American Academy of Microbiology and the American
Geophysical Union, a recipient of the Rosenstiel Award in Ocean Sciences,
and a recently-elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Dr.
Chisholm's research has focused on the smallest of the photoautotrophic
microbial community which is now known to be responsible for a large part
of the primary formation of organic matter in the sea. She led a team that
discovered the genus Prochlorococcus, the single most abundant
phytoplankton taxon in the ocean, which has led to a transformation of our
understanding of pelagic ecology, biogeochemical cycling and microbial
evolution in the ocean. Dr. Chisholm has examined in detail the
physiological ecology of the phytoplankton at various scales, from the
community down to the individual cell, and is playing a leading role in
the integration of genomics into marine microbial ecology. She has been
highly influential through her collaborations and training of younger
scientists, leadership on controversial issues such as ocean fertilization
for carbon sequestration, service to the oceanographic and broader
scientific communities, and public communications.
|