Penny Chisholm

Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Biology

MIT 48-419
15 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

Phone: (617) 253-1771
Fax: (617) 324-0336
Email: chisholm at mit dot edu

View Curriculum Vitae


Employment and Positions:

2006-present Director, MIT Earth System Initiative (web.mit.edu/esi)
2002-2006  Co-Director, MIT Earth System Initiative (web.mit.edu/esi)
2002-2005 Co-Director, Terrascope (web.mit.edu/terrascope)
2002-present Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies
1993-present Joint Appointment, Department of Biology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1976-present Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Division of Water Resources & Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1988-1995 MIT Director, MIT/Woods Hole Joint Program in
Oceanography and Oceanographic Engineering
1978-present Visiting Scientist, Biology Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
1974-76 Post-Doctoral Researcher, Biological Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Professional Societies:

American Society of Microbiology
American Geophysical Union
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (Member at Large 1983-1986)
Phycological Society of America (Associate Editor, J. Phycol. 1983-1987)
The Oceanography Society (Charter Council Member 1989-1991)
Ecological Society of America
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Sigma XI


Honors and Awards:

2005 Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine Science
2004-present Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator in Marine Science
2003 Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
2002-present Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies (Endowed Chair)
1995-2002 McAfee Professor of Engineering (Endowed Chair)
1998 Resident Scholar, Bellagio Center, Italy
1997-1998 Guggenheim Fellow
1996 Elected Fellow, American Geophysical Union
1993 Elected Fellow, American Society of Microbiology
1993 Member, International Ecology Institute
1992 Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1991 Rosenstiel Award in Ocean Sciences
1980-1982 Doherty Professor of Ocean Utilization
1977-1978 Edgerton Assistant Professor

Selected Professional Activities:

Board Member, World Wildlife Fund, 2004-present
Board Member, Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, 2003-present
Member, Advisory Committee, Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology, 2003-present
Member, Science Advisory Board, Joint Genome Institute, DOE, 2000-present
Member, Joint Genome Institute Policy Board, 2003
Co-Organizer: ASLO Workshop on Ocean Fertilization for Carbon Sequestration, 2001
Co-Organizer: NSF Sponsored Workshop on Marine Microbial Genomics, 2000
Visiting Committee, Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1999
Editorial Board, Environmental Microbiology, 1998-present
Board Member, Union of Concerned Scientists, 1996-2002
Subject Editor, Aquatic Microbiol Ecology, 1995-1999
Visiting Committee, Oceanography, Brookhaven National Laboratories, 1995-1998
U.S National Committee for SCOPE (NRC Board on Env. Science and Toxicology), 1993-1995
Editorial Board: Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1992-2000
Corporation Member, Bermuda Biological Station, 1992-1996
Editorial Board, Journal of Marine Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, 1991-1995
Editorial Board: Oceanus Magazine, 1991-1993
Committee on Molecular Marine Biology (National Research Council), 1991-1992
Organizer: ASLO Special Symposium: "What Regulates Areas of the Open Sea?" Feb. 1991
Ocean Studies Board Member (National Research Council), 1990-1993
U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study Steering Committee Member, 1989-1992


Oceanographic Cruises:

R/V Oceanus Sargasso Sea, 1996, 1997 (Chief Scientist)
R/V Iselin Equatorial Pacific, 1993
R/V Iselin Saragasso Sea, 1993
R/V Oceanus Caribbean, 1989
R/V Atlantis II Southern California Bight, 1986-87
R/V Oceanus Caribbean, 1986
R/V Knorr Caribbean, 1985
R/V G. W. Pierce Sargasso Sea, 1979
R/V Columbus Iselin Sargasso Sea, 1977
R/V David Star Jordan (National Marine Fisheries), 1976
R/V Ellen B. Scripps Southern California Bight Survey IV, 1975
R/V Ellen B. Scripps Southern California Bight Survey, III, 1975
R/V Alpha Helix Gulf of California, 1974


Teaching:

Undergraduate subjects:
Fundamentals of Ecology (1.018J)
Introductory Biology (7.014)
Aquatic Chemistry and Biology Laboratory

Graduate subjects:
Aquatic Ecology
Seminars on topics in Biological Oceanography.


Research Interests:

General Areas: Biological oceanography, Global ecology, Ecological genomics.
Current Interests: Ecology, evolution, and comparative genomics of marine cyanobacteria and the viruses that infect them; Iron and phytoplankton growth; Ocean fertility.