Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole Massachusetts Ninety-Ninth Report for the Year 1996 One-Hundred and Eighth Year Officers of the Corporation Sheldon J. Segal, Chairman ofthe Board of Trustees Frederick Bay, Co-Vice Chair Mary J. Greer, Co- 1 'ice Chair James D. Ebert, President ofthe Corporation John E. Burris, Director and ChiefExecutive Officer Mary B. Conrad, Treasurer Neil Jacobs, Clerk ofthe Corporation Contents Report of the Director and CEO R 1 Report of the Treasurer R7 Financial Statements R8 Report of the Library Director R 1 7 Educational Programs Summer Courses R 1 9 Short Courses R23 Summer Research Programs Principal Investigators R28 Other Research Personnel R29 Library Readers R3 1 Institutions Represented R32 Year-Round Research Programs R36 Honors R46 Photo credits: Board of Trustees and Committees R52 Michelle Bosch R52 Administrative Support Staff R55 Frank Bowles R2 (top), R36 Members of the Corporation Mark Dornblaser R38 Life Members R58 Robert Colder R3 Members R59 Roger Hanlon R45 Associate Members R69 Tom Kleindinst R5 (bottom) Certificate of Organization R72 Sara Pratt R58 Articles of Amendment R72 James Sidie R2 (bottom) Bylaws R72 Report of the Director and Chief Executive Officer 1 996 was a year of great excitement at the transformation of our existing program in molecular Marine Biological Laboratory, not only for our evolution into a larger-scale Center. This new Center is accomplishments in science and education, but also for directed by Mitchell Sogin and at present includes the the Trustees' decision to undertake a comprehensive laboratories of Norman Wainwright, Monica Riley, and fundraising campaign which will ensure that the MBL is Neal Cornell. a strong research and educational institution in the 21st During the past year, Sogin and his colleagues Century. This campaign has as its goal to raise $25 published a number of papers, including one that million by the end of the year 2000 in support of describes the phylogenetic affinity of medically research, education, and facilities. important parasites and another that describes the Biological research does not stand still, and neither potential convergent evolution of coding regions for an can an institution devoted to its progress. As the 20th important protein, actin, found in the cytoskeleton of Century becomes the 2 1 st, the world needs to be able to eukaryotes. This exciting research, long supported by count on science and technology and the MBL to the Vetlesen Foundation, was recently again recognized help confront the challenges of curing disease, feeding by the National Institutes of Health when it extended the hungry, keeping the environment healthy, and Sogin's funding for another 4 years. improving the overall quality of peoples' lives. Thanks to careful planning, the MBL is now poised The Ecosystems Center to meet these challenges. A successful campaign will Another goal of the Campaign is to provide support enable us to establish new research centers of for the Ecosystems Center, the largest resident research excellence, create and build an endowment for our unit at the MBL. Its scientists conduct research educational program, enhance research opportunities throughout the world on temperate forests, tropical for our summer and visiting investigators, and improve pastures, estuaries, and arctic tundra. Their goal is the facilities that support these programs. understanding and being able to predict how The Campaign for the Marine Biological Laboratory ecosystems respond to change, whether it be caused by will enable the Laboratory to enter the 2 1 st Century as a natural forces or human activity. secure, independent center of biological, biomedical. Funds raised through the Campaign for the MBL will and environmental research and education, positioned assure that the Center's outstanding research efforts to undertake new and innovative programs in the continue into the 21st Century, a time in which we can tradition of excellence that has characterized the expect increasing environmental threats. Funds raised institution throughout its history. in the Campaign will be used to build new research laboratories, a staging area for field research, a Research at the MBL computer classroom, meeting rooms, and geographic information system facilities. The Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Research progress has moved forward rapidly this Molecular Biology and Evolution past year at the Ecosystems Center, with, for example, One of the major goals of the Campaign to create a John Hobbie and Michele Bahr, in collaboration with research center in molecular evolution and comparative Mitch Sogin, identifying previously unidentifiable molecular biology has already been accomplished, microbes from Toolik Lake, Alaska, by analyzing their thanks to a farsighted, $2 million gift from the DNA. This cutting-edge technique will help ecologists Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation. determine the bacteria responsible for natural processes This landmark gift is one of the largest grants ever to such as decomposition and enable a better prediction of be awarded to the MBL. It is catalyzing the the effects of changing environmental conditions on Rl R2 Annual Report a model system. In addition to studies on the feeding behavior of the Hawaiian squid, which led to the culture breakthrough, he and his collaborators have made progress on four projects: sexual selection and sperm competition among squids, sensory biology of chemoreception in Nautilus, observational learning in cuttlefish, and spatial learning in cuttlefish and octopus. BioCurrents Facility During 1996, the National Vibrating Probe Facility, directed by Peter J.S. Smith, was renamed the BioCurrents Research Center as part of the renewal of funding by the National Institutes of Health as a NCRR Biomedical Technology Research Program. Funding under this grant renewal will allow Smith and his staff to expand the technical capabilities of the facility and to appoint two new staff members. Several instruments have been developed or refined in the BioCurrents Research Center during the past ecosystems processes mediated by bacteria. Edward year. The ion probe instrumentation was redesigned, Rastetter and Matthew Williams have been using new polarographic techniques were developed, and a computer models to model photosynthetic and other four-head BioKelvin assembly was created. Smith and processes in plant canopies. These models are good colleagues put the equipment to good use, predictors of natural processes and have enabled a demonstrating the importance of the acidic better understanding of the effects of water, clouds, environment in which sperm develop for proper wind, and seasonal change on the productivity of forest maturation. These results, obtained in collaboration stands. with Sylvie Breton and her colleagues at Massachusetts Using a stable isotope of nitrogen in both aquatic and General Hospital, present the possibility of developing a terrestrial ecosystems has enabled scientists Bruce male contraceptive protocol in which altering the Peterson and Knute Nadelhoffer to trace the movement acidity of the environment in the vas deferens may of nitrogen nutrients. These results have helped to prevent normal development and maturation of the predict the impact of additional inputs of nitrogen on sperm. plant growth and species distribution from sources such as acid deposition. Other developments Marine Resources Center Shinya Inoue and Rudolf Oldenbourg of the Architectural Dynamics of Living Cells Program Success in the Campaign for the MBL will enable scientists at the Marine Resources Center to enhance existing research efforts and to increase the pace at which they develop new research models. A major accomplishment in 1 996 was the successful culture of the Hawaiian squid, Euprymna scolopes, through its entire life cycle with good survival rates and fertile eggs for the next generation. This breakthrough will enable new questions in developmental biology to be addressed by providing organisms from a well- controlled and stable source. Improvements in the growth of the cuttlefish Sepia ojjicinalis and in the maintenance of the toadfish promise to assist scientists who require healthy research models. This past year, MRC director Roger Hanlon established his own research laboratory which focuses on the biological bases of behavior using cephalopods as Report of the Director and CEO R3 continued to explore the activities of living cells with the most sophisticated techniques of light microscopy. Highlights, in collaboration with a number of investigators, included observ ing microtubule and actin bundle dynamics in dividing newt lung epithelial cells and in growth cones ofAplyxiu bag cell neurons. The new polarized light microscope (Pol-Scope) developed by Rudolf Oldenbourg is now available commercially and has been crucial to the group's ability to obtain its exciting new results. Long-time BioCurrents Research Center collaborator David Keefe became the MBL's newest resident scientist in December of 1 996. Keefe is Director of the Laboratory for Reproductive Medicine. Brown University and Women and Infants' Hospital and investigates the mechanisms that may cause age-related female infertility. Using his advanced equipment and techniques with those in the laboratories of Peter Smith and Rudolf Oldenbourg. Keefe is searching for ways to determine the viability of egg cells. His ultimate goal is to enable women to make more informed choices about the reproductive