Nominations Now Open for Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization Deadline November 12, 2010

The MIT Sea Grant College Program announces that nominations are now open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization. All non-tenured MIT faculty members from any Institute department are eligible. Department heads may submit one nomination every year. The deadline for nominations is November 12, 2010. The person appointed to the Chair will receive $25,000 per year for two years, beginning July 1, 2011. Endowed by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, the two-year Chair opens the way for promising, non-tenured professors to undertake marine-related research that will further innovative uses of the ocean’s resources. There are no restrictions on the area of research, and any aspect of marine use and/or management may be addressed, whether social, political, environmental, economic or technical.Final selection will be made by a committee that includes the Vice President and Dean for Research, the Dean of Engineering, the Dean of Science, the Chairman of the Sea Grant Committee and the Director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program, following a review and recommendation from the full Sea Grant Committee. The Vice President and Dean for Research will announce the new Doherty Professor in January 2010. While serving as the Doherty Assistant or Associate Professor of Ocean Utilization, the incumbent cannot hold another MIT-funded chair.In 2010, the award went to Janelle Thompson for her research on the host-associated microbial communities (microbiome) in corals, their activity in response to environmental stress, and relationship to lesions caused by White Plague disease. This timely piece of research addresses the current rates of coral decline worldwide and the urgent need to understand how environmental factors may be linked to coral health. Dr. Thompson’s hypothesis is that coral health can be explained by the activity of the microbiome. Her research focuses on corals found off the coast of Brazil in the Androlhos Bank (Mussismilia brazilienses), and will be carried out in collaboration with colleagues from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Support from the Doherty Professorship will enable her to pursue detailed diagnostic tests on specimens of healthy, diseased and incubated coral specimens obtained during expeditions planned for 2010 and 2011.Anyone wishing to be nominated should contact his or her department head for procedures and selection criteria. Please contact Kathy de Zengotita for more information, Rm. E38-330, x3-7042, kdez@mit.edu.ABOUT MIT SEA GRANTThe mission of the MIT Sea Grant College Program is to employ innovative research, education and outreach strategies to responsibly use and sustain the vital marine resources of Massachusetts. The issues we address manifest locally but many are global in nature. Compelling challenges demand our attention as a solo entity and in partnership with other groups living and working on the coasts and at sea. MIT Sea Grant brings the substantial intellectual abilities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and our sister universities to bear on ocean-related challenges requiring an extraordinary technical contribution. In meeting these challenges, we expand human understanding of the ocean and establish the infrastructure to sustain the initiatives and talent pool needed to address complex issues of critical and fragile marine resources.###MIT Sea Grant College ProgramMail to: 77 Massachusetts Avenue, E38-300, Cambridge, MA 02139To visit: 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02140/