Sallie W. Chisholm

Sallie W. Chisholm
Born Marquette, Michigan
Residence Massachusetts, United States
Nationality American
Fields Marine biology
Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alma mater Skidmore College
University at Albany, SUNY
Known for Study of phytoplankton, especially Prochlorococcus
Notable awards National Medal of Science
Alexander Agassiz Medal (2010)

Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm is a U.S. biological oceanographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is an expert in the ecology and evolution of ocean microbes.

Education

Chisholm graduated from Marquette Senior High School in Marquette, MI in 1965.[1] She attended Skidmore College and earned a Ph.D. from SUNY Albany in 1974.

Professional work

Chisholm has been a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1976. Her research has focused on the ecology of marine phytoplankton.[2] Chisholm's early work focused on the processes by which such plankton take up nutrients and the manner in which this affects their life cycle on diurnal time scales. This led her to begin using flow cytometry which can be used to measure the properties of individual cells.

The application of flow cytometry to environmental samples led Chisholm and her collaborators (most notably R.J. Olson and H.M. Sosik) to the discovery that small plankton (in particular Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus) accounted for a much more substantial part of marine productivity than had previously been realized. Previously, biological oceanographers had focused on silicaceous diatoms as being the most important phytoplankton, accounting for 10-20 gigatons of carbon uptake each year. Chisholm's work showed that an even larger amount of carbon was cycled through these small algae, which may also play an important role in the global nitrogen cycle.

In recent years, Chisholm has played a visible role in opposing the use of iron fertilization as a technological fix for anthropogenic climate change.[3]

Honors and awards

Chisholm has been a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) since 2003.

In January 2010, she was awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal, for "pioneering studies of the dominant photosynthetic organisms in the sea and for integrating her results into a new understanding of the global ocean." [4]

She was a co-recipient in 2012 of the Ruth Patrick Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.[2]

Chisholm received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama on February 1, 2013.[2]

In 2013, she was awarded the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology, “for being one of the most productive, charismatic and active researchers on biology and marine ecology”. [5]

Select publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Medalist". The Mining Journal. 2013-02-09. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sallie (Penny) Chisholm awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for scientists". MIT. 2013-02-19. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  3. ↑ "Ocean fertilization: time to move on". Nature. 2009-09-17. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  4. ↑ "Academy Honors 17 for Major Contributions to Science". Office of News and Public Information, The National Academies. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  5. ↑ "Scientific forum on oceans and climate with the participation of Sallie W. Chisholm, Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology 2013". Universitat de Barcelona. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
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