WHOI Scientists Earn Laurels
WHOI geochemist Stanley Hart is the 13th recipient of the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship, awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for making lasting contributions to the study of the physics of the Earth. Hart, a scientist emeritus in the WHOI De-partment of Geology and Geophysics, received the $20,000 award April 27. He was cited for “development of the new field of ‘chemical geo-dynamics’ through the use of the chemical and isotopic signature of mantle-derived samples to map and constrain the dynamical evolution of the Earth’s interior.
Dennis J. McGillicuddy, Jr., won the 2008 Rosenstiel Award, given by the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science to honor mid-career scientists who have made significant and growing impacts in their field in the last decade. He received the $10,000 award on Feb. 1. McGillicuddy, a senior scientist in the WHOI Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, has broken new ground by bridging physical and biological oceanography, studying plankton and ocean currents to decipher what controls the productivity of marine ecosystems.
Hal Caswell was selected as the first recipient of the Per Brinck Oikos Award, which recognizes important and novel contributions to the science of ecology. Caswell, a senior scientist in the WHOI Department of Biology, was honored for his work on population dynamics and demography of threatened species, such as right whales, albatrosses, and polar bears. He received the 1,500-euro award in February.
Geoffrey Eglinton, emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, U.K., and adjunct scientist at WHOI, was awarded the 2008 Dan David Prize for scientific achievement by Tel Aviv University. Eglinton pioneered modern investigations of chemical fossils in sedimentary rocks, providing tools that expanded knowledge about Earth’s earliest life forms, ancient ocean temperatures, environmental changes on conti-nents, and other details about our planet and its history. He shared the $1 million prize, endowed by the Dan David Foundation, with glaci-ologists Ellen Mosley-Thompson and Lonnie G. Thompson.