Biology Students Win Fellowships

Kristen Hunter-Cevera

Harriet Alexander

Please join me in congratulating JP Bio Students Harriet Alexander, Kristen Hunter-Cevera and Emily Moberg. Harriet and Kristen both won prestigious three-year fellowships from the Department of Defense. The National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowships are awarded to "individuals who have demonstrated the ability and special aptitude for advanced training in science and engineering."

In addition, Harriet and incoming student Emily Moberg were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.  According to the website, "the reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, Google founder, Sergey Brin and Freakonomicsco-author, Steven Levitt."

But don't worry, Harriet, Kristen and Emily....no pressure!

Entering JP class of 2011 is complete!

The dust has now settled and the results are in! The entering class of 2011 is now complete. They are:

• Alexander Bergan (UC San Diego; advisors: Gareth Lawson & Andone Lavery)
• Alexis Fischer (Wellesley College; advisor: Don Anderson)
• Jesse McNichol (Mount Allison Univ.; advisor: Stefan Sievert)
• Emily Moberg (MIT; advisor: Mike Neubert)
• Julie Van der Hoop (Dalhousie Univ.; advisor: Michael Moore)

Thanks to everyone who helped in the admissions process, from evaluating applications, to giving open house tours.  Special thanks to Tricia Morin Gebbie and Ronni Schwartz who made the process go so smoothly.

JP Student wins AGU Award

The accolades continue to accumulate for Biology JP students and postdocs. Here's news that Santiago Herrera has won an Outstanding Student Paper Award for his presentation Biodiversity of the Deep-Sea Benthic Fauna in the Sangihe-Talaud Region, Indonesia: Observations from the INDEX-SATAL 2010 Expedition. Santiago gave his presentation at the 2010 AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. The selection committee said, "Your presentation was recognized as among the best of a strong group of student presenters, which sets an example for your fellow students and the entire AGU membership."  Among the 14 co-authors were fellow JP student Eleanor Bors and Santiago's advisor, Tim Shank. You can find the abstract here.  Congratulations Santiago!

Bio Postdoc Wins Society of Toxicology Award

At the Society of Toxicology (SOT) annual meeting this week in Washington, DC, WHOI Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Alicia Timme-Laragy won the first place award for postdoctoral research from the Molecular Biology Specialty Section of SOT. Here she is presenting her poster "Nrf2b: a novel Nrf2 paralog in zebrafish" (co-authored by S l Karchner, D G Franks, M J Jenny, and M E Hahn).  Good work Alicia!

JP Biology Grad Wins ASLO Prize

Recent MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate Joanna Gyory has won the Best Poster Prize at this year's ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting for her poster "Turbidity as a cue for synchronous reproduction in the barnacle Semibalinus balanoides."  The poster was coauthored by her Ph.D. advisor Jesus Pineda.  Congratulations Joanna!

2011 Ocean Ventures Fund Competition

OCEAN VENTURES FUND (OVF) GUIDELINES, 2011

The Ocean Ventures Fund was created in response to the traditionally conservative and time consuming funding procedures of federal agencies. The intent of OVF is to promote hard-to- fund research and innovation by encouraging scientists to take chances in following their curiosity.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY:

OVF is open to all students in the MIT/WHOI Joint Graduate Program in Oceanography and Oceanographic Engineering. The research idea and the proposal text must come from the graduate students, not his/her supervisor. Students are the Principal Investigators. Both disciplinary and interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged, as are projects relating to EPA- funded research.

CALENDAR:

The submission deadline for OVF proposals is April 1, 2011. Proposals will be reviewed during April 2011 by the WHOI Education Coordinators, Dean, and Associate Dean. Award decisions will be made and notices will be sent in May for research start-up on June 1, 2011. At least 8 awards may be given in 2011.

PROPOSAL FORMAT:

With the exception of the following, OVF proposals should follow NSF guidelines. The explanatory text may not exceed four pages (maximum of six with illustrations). A cover letter must recap the proposal in lay person's terms and include reasons for applying to OVF. Remember to state clearly the research objective and why it is important.

The OVF Proposal must include the following sections in this order: 1. Cover letter, no longer than one page. 2. Endorsement letter, no longer than one page, from student's advisor. 3. Title page with abstract, including signatures of department chair and advisor. 4. Explanatory text, not to exceed four pages (excluding figures). 5. Bibliography. 6. Budget; should not exceed $15,000.00. 7. Curriculum Vitae. 8. Please provide the proposal in hard copy and pdf format to your Education Coordinator.

BUDGET:

Budgets may be used be for your stipend, if you are unsupported by a research grant. Salary support for technical assistance may also be included, as well as cost of equipment, supplies, travel, and computer time. Budgets must be calculated using WHOI (i.e., not MIT) rates.

EVALUATION:

Proposals are judged on: 1. Quality of science and how clearly you express it. 2. Appropriateness for funding by OVF, as opposed to funding by conventional research sources.

Submit your proposals, by April 1, to your education coordinator.

Education Coordinators: Biology, Mike Neubert; MC&G, Mark Kurz; G&G, Delia Oppo; AOPE, Tim Stanton; Physics, Steve Lentz

New Faces

The students of the entering class of 2010 have now almost completed their first semester in the Joint Program. With the change in season, they will soon begin their migration phase, moving frequently between Cambridge and Woods Hole. Here are their faces...why not introduce yourself if you see them?

Emily Brownlee
Sosik Lab 

Esther Shyu
Caswell Lab

Katherine Pitz
Anderson Lab

Nicholas Macfarlane
Tyack Lab

 

Harriet Alexander
Dhyrman Lab

Oscar Sosa
DeLong Lab

Jeanette Wheeler
Mullineaux & Helfrich Labs

Eleanor Bors
Shank Lab

New Student Representatives on Education Assembly

Li Ling Hamady and Skylar Bayer have been elected by their fellow JP students to represent them on WHOI's Educational Assembly.  Thank you Li Ling and Skylar for agreeing to serve!

As the official "discipline representative" for the Biology Department,  Li Ling will also be helping me with a variety of tasks, including finding peer mentors for the new students.  I encourage senior students to participate, and first year students to not be shy about asking questions of your mentors about navigating the Joint Program.

2011 Admissions Schedule

The 2011 Joint Program Admissions season is right around the corner, and I'm anticipating another record year for the number of applications. (Great for the JP; not so great for my sleep schedule!) Assistant Scientist Matt Johnson has recently been appointed to the Admissions Advisory Committee, joining Lauren Mullineaux and me as representatives of the Biology Department.

Please mark your calendars with the following important dates:

• January 5: Application deadline
• January 12: Files available for Admissions Committee review
• January 26: First cut
• January 31: Biology Department admissions meeting
• February 10: Admissions Advisory Committee "Pizza" meeting
• February 11: JCBO admissions meeting
• February 18: Joint Program Committee meeting
• March 14-15: Open House

Note: Students are beginning to settle on the graduate programs to which they will apply, so it's a perfect time to update your webpage.  (If you are like me, it was time to do this 5 years ago!)

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

The 2011 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition is now open.  Some of the deadlines are:

• November 15, 2010 (Monday): Interdisciplinary Fields
• November 19, 2010 (Friday): Geosciences
• November 22, 2010 (Monday): Life Sciences

The competition is not only open to current undergraduates.  In particular, the GRFP website states that "if you...

• are currently in your final year of your undergraduate program
• finished your baccalaureate degree and are planning to attend graduate school in Fall 2011
• are a first year graduate student (started in Fall 2010), or
• are in the first semester of your second year in graduate school (started Fall 2009)...

you are within the eligible amount of completed graduate study. As long as you are pursuing a research-focused Master's or PhD in an NSF-supported field and meet the citizenship requirements, you are eligible for the GRFP."

Handbook Update

At its last meeting, JCBO approved a small change to the curriculum. Students are now highly encouraged to take 7.410 Applied Statistics in order to satisfy their statistics requirement. They will need to petition for any course substitution. The course is being offered in the Spring so that students may enroll during the same semester that they take Biological Oceanography in Woods Hole.


This change to the curriculum is reflected in the updated Handbook for Students and Advisors, which also includes minor format changes (e.g., the links should work again).

What Is "Accepted Scientific Practice"?

The following report was sent to me by Hal Caswell:

As most everyone knows, in 2009 a number of email messages among climate researchers were stolen from the University of East Anglia. One of the researchers was Dr. Michael Mann at Penn State University. Mann was accused of various kinds of academic misconduct; Penn State carried out an investigation and found no evidence to support the allegations. However, they generated another investigation aimed not at academic misconduct (faking data, etc.), but rather at the more difficult issue of whether Dr. Mann followed "accepted scientific practices" in his conduct. This is more difficult because it involves figuring out what "accepted scientific practices" actually are.

The report of that investigation has recently been released. There is an outstanding 3-part discussion of the report on the blog Adventures in Ethics and Science, with lots of links to the official reports and to other sources for this important investigation. As part of their task, the investigators interviewed several scientists to get their opinions about accepted practice; one of those was WHOI's own Bill Curry.

Here are the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Joint Program Summer Picnic

The Annual Joint Program Summer Picnic took place on Saturday, July 10 on the Quissett ball field. This year’s picnic was organized by JP student representatives Claire Pontbriand (G&G) and Maya Yamato (Biology). Maya reports that the event was a smashing success:

This year’s picnic was nothing like the ones that the Joint Program has ever seen before. In an effort to raise awareness about WHOI on the MIT campus, meet new people, and show off our beautiful campus to non-JP MIT students, we chartered 2 buses to provide round-trip transportation from MIT to the Quissett ball field. We got a tremendous response, with the 106 event tickets selling out two weeks in advance and more MIT graduate students emailing us constantly asking us if they could come crash the event. (Unfortunately, we had to turn them down). 

Despite the ominous weather forecast, it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. We fired up the grills, had lunch, and had a MIT vs. Joint Program kickball match. This was followed by soccer, Frisbee, basketball, and a trip to the beach across the street. The MIT students were excited to see our other campus, get to know more about the Joint Program, and, needless to say, incredibly jealous. The picnic was a huge success and we definitely accomplished our mission to increase awareness about our great institution. The next time we meet fellow graduate students at MIT, they might not need an explanation about WHOI or the Joint Program! 

Participants included Joint Program students and MIT students from the following groups: EECS, MechE, EAPS, Biology, Biological Engineering, MIT-SRP, MTL-summership, Physics, PAOC, Aero/Astro, Technology and Policy, Nuclear Science and Engineering, and CSAIL. Funding was generously provided by the MIT Student Activities Office, MIT Graduate Student Council Funding Board, the MIT Biology Department, the MIT Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers, the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Graduate Students Association, the MIT Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science Graduate Student Advisory Council, and the WHOI Academic Programs Office.

Q & A with Prof. Paola Rizzoli

Photo by Ed Quinn.

At the last WHOI Commencement, MIT Prof. Paola Rizzoli was thanked for her many contributions to the Joint Program.  In recognition of her service, Jim Yoder announced the creation of the Paola Rizzoli Fellowship to be awarded each year to an incoming first year Joint Program student with preference given to a student who identifies initial co-advisers at both MIT and WHOI.

Given the ongoing discussion about how to strengthen the Joint Program, I thought it would be useful to find out a little about Paola's history of involvement, and to get her opinions about how the program might be improved.  To that end, she graciously agreed to answer a few questions via e-mail:

You have just stepped down from your position as the Director of the Joint Program at MIT after 12 years of service. How did you first become involved with the Joint Program, and how has your involvement changed over the years?

When I came to MIT in 1981, all the students in oceanography were enrolled in the Joint Program, the only way for a student to get an education and degree in oceanography (all disciplines) was to apply to the Joint Program, even though technically the two Institutions, MIT and WHOI, could issue separate degrees. It was therefore natural for any new professor in oceanography to become actively involved in the Program for getting students and teaching.

Also, a fundamental motivation was the interaction with the WHOI colleagues fostered by common research interests which very often led to co-advising a student. I became immediately involved both in advising and teaching and over the years I have taught all the core courses in PO, more than once, plus other courses I designed myself on topics related to my research.

In the 90's a parallel program was created at MIT, PAOC (Program in Amosphere, Oceans and Climate ) which can give an MIT-only degree in Oceanography. PAOC at first was competitive with the JP and created considerable friction between the two Institutions (see Review Committee report of 1998). Over the years, however, the coexistence of the two Programs smoothed out; presently the JP students in Physical and Chemical Oceanography are automatically part of PAOC and basically all the PO and CO students are enrolled in the JP.

Over the years my involvement extended to the programmatic aspects of the program. I became a member of JCPO in the early 90's, and was its chair in the period 1995-1997. At that time, we restructured the PO curriculum and general exam. And finally in 1997 I became MIT Director of the entire Program. So you could say that I have spent my entire professional life at MIT (30 years in 2011....) in the Program.

How has the Joint Program changed since you first became involved?

The organizational structure is basically the same, centered around five Committees, one for each oceanographic sub-discipline. At MIT, the line "of command" changed over the years. In 1997 I was reporting to David Litster, I do not even remember which was his exact position, and he was completely indifferent to the Program. Then, when the position of the Chancellor was created, I reported to him, and Larry Bacow was the first high level governance official at MIT to pay serious attention to the Program. Then the Provost Bob Brown became very strong supporter of the JP (in 2004, at the time of the second review, Bob described the program as "a jewel in the crown of graduate studies at MIT"). Under Bob my "boss" became the Associate Provost for Research and Education, and the present one, Claude Canizares, is also a great supporter of the Program.

This has been really a great change at MIT over 12 years. From the point of view of research and interests of the faculty of the two Institutions, there was unfortunately a drift apart between the two which has been recognized and is presently being addressed.

Indeed a recent review of the the Joint Program advised that we need to reinvigorate the connection between MIT and WHOI. Why do you think the connection has withered? What one thing might we do to help revitalize it?

There are a variety of reasons why the connection between MIT and WHOI withered and they are mostly discipline-related. For example, in geophysics, at MIT we lost a number of key faculty members, such as Sean Solomon and Marcha McNutt, who had been deeply involved in the JP. They were not replaced until the recent, vigorous hiring by Maria Zuber of new young faculty in all disciplines. Thus the ties in geophysics suffered greatly by these losses. Hopefully the new geophysics MIT faculty will establish vigorous ties with the WHOI faculty.

In PO and CO the reason was due to the drift apart of the research interests of the two faculties, especially in PO (see the creation of PAOC). At MIT we evolved very strongly to climate research, which is by nature multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. WHOI was rather resistant to such an evolution until recently. WHOI recognized the importance of such a change from more traditional oceanography by hiring as Director Susan Avery, an atmospheric and climate scientist. As Susan recalled at the June 5 commencement at WHOI, we had lunch together in Summer 2008 just a few months after she took over, and we talked about restructuring the Program towards climate oriented research. And recently WHOI has been looking for new hires in climate. The restructuring of the JP is occurring now in response to the last review report.

Another issue highlighted in the external review is the perception that students face too many hurdles if they want to undertake interdisciplinary studies in the Joint Program. Do you think that perception is correct? If so, do you think we can (or should) do something to facilitate interdisciplinary studies?

That perception was correct until recently, but the situation is changing. I will give you the PO example. Even though on paper there were three or four interdisciplinary curricula available to the students, the general exam in PO was, and is, still structured around GFD questions, even though we adjust them in the case of a student working at interdisciplinary research. The PO faculty has amply recognized this rigidity and a committee has been created and is presently working at restructuring the PO curriculum and general exam to reflect the importance of interdisciplinary studies.

The need of restructuring the entire JP, as recommended by the review committee, has been addressed through the creation by Susan Avery and Ed Boyle, of a Committee comprising MIT/WHOI faculty in all the disciplines. This restructuring process will also hopefully address the need of reinvigorating the ties between the two Institutions by creating new venues of interactions at the research and teaching/advising levels.

Is there anything you would like to say current students?

You are in one of the two top educational programs in oceanography in the world, and the only one which joins together a top sea-going institution and the top school in science and technology in the world. Take full advantage of the wide-ranging opportunities that each Institution offers; don't be shy in your ambitions. Reach out to the joint faculty: they are there to work with you and will only be delighted to help you in your research and to achieve your career goals.

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.

Hahn, Tivey win Arnold B. Aarons Award

Please join me in congratulating the Biology Department's own Senior Scientist Dr. Mark Hahn for winning the Arnold B. Aarons Award for excellence in teaching, advising and mentoring.  Dr. Margaret ("Meg") Tivey, Senior Scientist in Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, will also be a recipient this year. The awards will be presented at the WHOI graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 5. Mark and Meg join previous awardees Dr. Joe Pedlosky (Physical Oceanography) and Dr. Lauren Mullineaux (Biology).

I think I speak for all of us on the Scientific Staff who have worked with Mark during his tenure as the Biology Department's Education Coordinator or in his capacity as the Chair of JCBO, that we (and our students!) have always valued his advice and guidance on all matters educational.  In my opinion, the Award Committee couldn't have found another mensch more deserving of the honor.

Congratulations Mark!

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Award Nominations: Arnold B. Arons Award for Excellence in Teaching, Advising, and Mentoring

This Award was established by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to honor the memory of Dr. Arnold B. Arons, long serving Trustee and Honorary Trustee of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Arnold B. Arons Award will be conferred periodically every two to five years as circumstances warrant to a WHOI Scientific Staff or Senior Technical Staff member who has demonstrated any or all of the following qualities during his/her participation in the education programs of the Institution:

• Sustained excellence in teaching.
• Sustained excellence in advising and/or mentoring.
• Exceptional promise in teaching, advising, or mentoring during early career involvement in the Institution’s education programs.

The Award will consist of a plaque engraved with the recipient’s name and a cash award. The recipient’s name will be engraved along with the date of receipt of the Award on a large plaque to be displayed in an appropriate manner in the Institution.

All members of the WHOI Scientific Staff and Senior Technical Staff (Research Specialists, Information System Specialists, Senior Engineers, Senior Research Specialists, Senior Information Systems Specialists and Principal Engineers), with the exception of the members of the Award Committee, are eligible for the award.

Nominations may be submitted by any WHOI employee, MIT/WHOI Joint Program student, WHOI postdoctoral appointee, MIT/WHOI Joint Program or WHOI alumni/ae. The Award Committee requests that nominations consist of:

1. A one or two page letter that addresses how the nominee’s activities at WHOI have fulfilled one or more of the award’s criteria (see above).
2. A full C.V. of the nominee that includes education activities such as teaching, advising, mentoring, and committee memberships both at WHOI and elsewhere.
3. Three letters of support for the nomination of one to two pages each. At least two of these letters should be from present or former WHOI employees, students, JP alumni/ae, or postdoctoral appointees.

All of the above documents should be sent to the Arnold Arons Award Committee c/o James Yoder, Vice President for Academic Programs and Dean, MS #31. Nominations are due by April 16, 2010. Questions about the award and nomination procedure should be directed to James Yoder (jyoder@whoi.edu) or Associate Dean James Price (jprice@whoi.edu).

The Award Committee will deliberate during late April and early May and will forward its recommendation to Dr. Susan Avery, WHOI President and Director, for her approval. The award will be presented at the Academic Convocation and Commencement to be held June 5, 2010 at WHOI.