MIT Microbiologist Wins National Academy of Sciences Agassiz Medal

Summary

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has just announced that Sallie Chisholm is the 2010 recipient of the Alexander Agassiz medal, which recognizes original contributions in the science of oceanography. Professor Chisholm is being honored for pioneering studies of the dominant photosynthetic microbes in the sea and for integrating her results into a new understanding of the global ocean. Chisholm is currently supported by DOE for her genomic and environmental studies on Prochlorococcus, a marine microbe that is the dominant agent of carbon fixation in the oceans and the most abundant photosynthetic cell on Earth. She is the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The medal is awarded every three years and will be presented to Chisholm at the Annual Meeting of the NAS on April 25, 2010.