Tyack on TEDTalks

Many of us in the Biology Department participate in educational activities outside of the Institution. One such activity is to deliver a lecture for a public audience.  Unfortunately, those of us back home in Woods Hole rarely have the opportunity to see, hear, and learn from those presentations.

That's why I was delighted when Hal Caswell pointed me to a lecture that Peter Tyack gave recently as part of the TEDTalks series (posted below).  After you've watched Peter's lecture, I recommend checking out other TED talks, they are great for procrastinating!

2010 Commencement Ceremonies

Biology Department participants in the 2010 Commencement Ceremonies included Erin Banning (first from left), Kate Buckman (fourth), Annette Hynes (fifth), and Liz Orchard (seventh). (Photo by Jayne Doucette, WHOI.)

Commencement ceremonies honoring graduates from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program who earned their degrees between February 2006 and June 2010 were held at McKee Ball Field in Woods Hole on Saturday, June 5. An early-morning deluge threatened to dampen the participants, if not their spirits, but the sun broke through just in time to keep all but their feet dry.

The 2010 graduates in Biological Oceanography included:

• Elizabeth Orchard, Ph.D., Phosphorus Physiology of the Marine Cyanobacterium Trichodesmium,
• Sarah Pacocha Preheim, Ph.D., Ecology and Population Structure of Vibrionaceae in the Coastal Ocean,
• Kelly Rakow Sutherland, Ph.D., Form, Function and Flow in the Plankton: Jet Propulsion and Filtration by Pelagic Tunicates,
• Erin Banning, Ph.D., Biology and Potential Biogeochemical Impacts of Novel Predatory Flavobacteria, and
• Holly Moeller, M.S., On the Economic Optimality of Marine Reserves When Fishing Damages Habitat.

Other honors bestowed at the ceremonies included the Ruth and Paul Fye Awards for Best Graduate Student Papers to: 

• Michael Brosnahan in the category of Biological Oceanography for his 2010 paper, "Outbreeding lethality between toxic Group I and nontoxic Group III Alexandrium tamarense spp. isolates: Predominance of heterotypic encystment and implications for mating interactions and biogeography," [Deep-Sea Research II, 57:175-189], and to
• Gareth Lawson in the Interdisciplinary Papers category for his 2008 two paper set "Euphausiid distribution along the Western Antarctic Peninsula—Part A: Development of robust multi-frequency acoustic techniques to identify euphausiid aggregations and quantify euphausiid size, abundance, and biomass," [Deep-Sea Research II, 55:412-431], and "Euphausiid distribution along the Western Antarctic Peninsula—Part B: Distribution of euphausiid aggregations and biomass, and associations with environmental features," [Deep-Sea Research II, 55:432-454].

(In addition to their Fye Awards, Gareth and Mike were nominated for "Papers with the Longest Titles" awards.)

Congratulations to all the graduates and honorees, and special thanks to everyone in the Academic Programs Office who helped to make this splendid quinquennial celebration so enjoyable!

From left: Mark Hahn, Joy Lapseritis, Kristen Whalen, Michael Neubert and Larry Madin. (Photo by Jayne Doucette, WHOI.)

2010-2011 Topics Courses

JCBO has approved the following Topics Courses for the 2010-211 academic year:
Fall

• 7.431 Topics in Marine Ecology: The Biology and Ecology of Coastal Ecosystems in Tropical Oceans (Tarrant, Pineda, Thorrold)
• 7.430 Topics in Quantitative Marine Science: Dynamic Models in Biology (Neubert)

Spring

• 7.438 Topics in the Behavior of Marine Animals: Marine Animal Behavior (Sayigh)
• 7.433 Topics in Biological Oceanography: Historical Developments in Biological Oceanography (Lawson, Sosik)

I'm still trying to figure out how to post the descriptions of these courses.  In the meantime, I'm sure the instructors will be happy to answer questions about them.  I'm also pretty sure that the instructors (particularly those teaching this Fall) would be happy to hear from students who are interested in taking the class. This will give them a sense of how many students they may have and help them with course scheduling.