Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, founded in 1974,^[1] is a private, non-profit center for global oceanography, ocean science education, and technology transfer. The Laboratory’s research ranges from microbial oceanography to the large-scale biogeochemical processes that drive ocean ecosystems and global environmental conditions, and is organized around the three core themes of Blue Biotechnology, Ocean Biogeochemistry and Climate Change, and Ocean Health. The Laboratory's 60,000 square-foot, shore-based campus is located in East Boothbay, Maine, on the Damariscotta River estuary. In December 2012, the campus became the first LEED Platinum certified laboratory in Maine and one of seven in the New England area.^[2] The Laboratory was recently rated one of the top 10 places to work in Maine.^[3]

The majority of the Laboratory's funding comes from federal and state grants and contracts,^[4] licenses and contracts with the private sector, and philanthropic support. Bigelow Laboratory supports the work of over 70 scientists and staff. The Laboratory also maintains a library open to the public both in East Boothbay and at McKown Point in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, in collaboration with the Maine Department of Marine Resources.^[5]

The Laboratory’s primary research focus is on the microbial life and biogeochemical dynamics of the world’s ocean, advancing society’s understanding of the interactions between ocean ecosystems, global processes, and the environment.^[6] The Laboratory’s education programs include undergraduate training through a semester program offered in affiliation with Colby College,^[7] and a National Science Foundation-funded summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.^[8] The Laboratory is also the home to several service facilities, including the Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (NCMA), the Single Cell Genomics Center (SCGC), and the J.J. MacIsaac Facility for Aquatic Cytometry.

History

The Laboratory was established by Drs. Charles and Clarice Yentsch^[9] in 1974 as a private, non-profit research institution named for the oceanographer Henry Bryant Bigelow, founding Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Bigelow’s extensive investigations in the early part of the twentieth century are recognized as the foundation of modern oceanography.^[10] His multi-year expeditions in the Gulf of Maine, where he collected water samples and data on phytoplankton, fish populations, and hydrography, established a new paradigm of intensive, ecologically-based oceanographic research in the United States and made this region one of the most thoroughly studied bodies of water, for its size, in the world.^[11]

Since its founding, the Laboratory has attracted over $100 million in federal grants for research projects, winning competitive, peer reviewed awards from all of the principal federal research granting agencies. The Laboratory’s total operating revenue (including philanthropy) has grown by 68% over the past six years to $7.9 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.^[12][13] Federal research grants have supported most of the Laboratory’s research operations and administrative needs in the past; education and outreach programs have relied on other sources of support, primarily contributions from individuals and private philanthropic foundations.

Since 2008, the Laboratory’s executive director is Graham Shimmield, Ph.D., FRSE, a marine geochemist and former director of the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences.^[14]

Mission

Bigelow Laboratory’s mission is to undertake and sustain excellence in fundamental research into the ecosystems of the world’s ocean and thereby comprehend their relevance to a changing world; to promote the education and enlightenment of ocean science to society at all ages; and to directly contribute to the sustainability of research, enterprise, and knowledge exchange, both locally and nationally. Bigelow Laboratory seeks to understand key processes driving ocean ecosystems, their evolution, and their fundamental relationship to life on Earth through interrelated programs in research, education, and technology transfer. Its focus ranges from microbial oceanography to the large-scale dynamics of the global ocean.

Organization

The Laboratory’s Ocean Science and Education Campus facilities and infrastructure in East Boothbay, Maine are organized into three “Centers of Discovery”.^[13]

Norton Center for Blue Biotechnology (NCBB). Research in the NCBB applies molecular biology and microbial ecology to the viruses, bacteria, archaea, and algae living in diverse environments throughout the world’s oceans in order to understand their evolution, genetic and chemical make-up, and their culture and industrial application. NCBB scientists work with the reservoir of microbial organisms in the natural environment and those preserved in cultures. The NCBB houses the world’s first microbial single cell genomics facility (SCGC),^[15] the Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (NCMA), containing one of the world’s first combined collections of marine algae, bacteria, archaea, and viruses; a flow cytometry laboratory; a bioreactor facility; and a laboratory focused on the oceanic deep biosphere.^[16]

Center for Ocean Biogeochemistry and Climate Change (COBCC). The research conducted at the COBCC addresses questions of ocean biogeochemistry and climate change at many scales, from local to global, and from individual cells to entire ocean basins. By bringing together the research activities in ocean observing, air-sea interactions, ocean biogeochemistry, cellular biogeochemistry, and land-sea interactions into a single, integrated space, the COBCC catalyzes the collaboration needed to provide scientific information on the role of microscopic marine communities in global ocean processes and climate change.

Center for Ocean Health (COH). Collectively, Bigelow Laboratory’s research brings a systems biology perspective to oceanographic research. Current developments in microbial and genomic research offer the opportunity to develop fundamental new research methods in ocean systems that go beyond traditional field-to-laboratory approaches. Research in the COH is focused on advancing the knowledge needed for future management and stewardship of marine ecosystems.

Education programs

The Laboratory’s education activities include high school, undergraduate, and professional training programs; postdoctoral training and mentoring; public events and programs based on the international Café Scientifique model; and online resources for teachers and students.^[17]

At the high school level, Bigelow Laboratory offers the annual Keller BLOOM (Bigelow Laboratory Orders Of Magnitude) program for Maine high school juniors, and the BLOOM Educators' program for Maine teachers to bring ocean science into their classrooms. The week-long BLOOM programs offer participants the opportunity work alongside professional researchers, exploring the biological, chemical and geological characteristics of the local marine environment through field and laboratory work.

As part of its affiliation with Colby College in Waterville, Maine, the Laboratory offers a full semester of courses in residence at the Bigelow campus. Students live in East Boothbay, take classes from Bigelow scientists, learn how to conduct field research through a field course on the Damariscotta River, and conduct independent research with a scientist. mentor^[18] In addition, Bigelow senior scientists teach in Waterville during in the college’s “January Program,” a five-week period of intensive single course offerings between the fall and spring academic terms.

The Laboratory annually offers a ten-week summer training program as a national site of the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.

Technology transfer

The Laboratory has established an Office of Corporate Alliances and Technology Transfer,^[13] which works with the science staff to build portfolios of proprietary and protected intellectual property, and establish relationships with private sector partners who can help the Laboratory commercialize marketable technologies.^[19]

References