Marine biotechnology researcher Shirley Pomponi will share her research on sponges and their uses beyond the marine ecosystem as the keynote speaker of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science’s Seventh Annual Alumni Lecture.

Pomponi, executive director of ocean science, technology, and development at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, will present her research on Tuesday, March 2 at 5:30 p.m. in the Rosenstiel School Auditorium.

Pomponi’s research focuses on marine biotechnology in general and on sponge cell culture in particular. Sponges have been around for more than 600 million years, and one reason that they’ve been so successful is because they have evolved a sophisticated chemical cache that enables them to compete for space, defend against predators, communicate with other sponges, reproduce, and even prevent infections. These same chemicals are being studied for their potential development as drugs to treat human disorders and diseases.

When it is not ecologically feasible to harvest sponges to obtain enough of beneficial chemicals for drug development or marketing, the most common option is synthesis of the chemical in the lab. Pomponi, who received her Ph.D. from the Rosenstiel School in 1978, and her team are exploring ways to grow sponge cells and stimulate them in order to produce these beneficial chemicals for pharmacological uses.

For more information on the lecture, please call 305-421-4207 or visit www.rsmas.miami.edu/alumni.

Dust plumes emerging from glacial outwash deposits on the southeast coast of Iceland.

Residents of the southern United States and the Caribbean have seen it many times during the summer months—a whitish haze in the sky that seems to hang around for days. The resulting thin film of dust on their homes and cars actually is soil from the deserts of Africa, blown across the Atlantic Ocean.

Now there is new evidence that dust storms in the Arctic, possibly caused by receding glaciers, may be making similar deposits in northern Europe and North America, according to University of Miami researcher Joseph M. Prospero in a February 19 presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Our recent work in Iceland has shown that most of the dust events there are associated with dust emitted from glacial outwash deposits, which may be carried into the northern latitudes and into Europe by synoptic weather events,” says Prospero, professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, in his talk “Intercontinental Dust Transport: The Linkage to Climate and Its Environmental Impact.”

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UM Professor Bruce Albrecht has been named one of 29 new Fellows of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the nation’s leading professional society for scientists in the atmospheric and related sciences. Albrecht teaches meteorology and physical oceanography at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

The honor of Fellow is given to an individual for recognition of outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences, or their applications, during a substantial period of years. Only one-fifth of one percent of membership is approved as Fellow each year.

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Frank J. Millero

Frank J. Millero, professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A fellow is defined as “a member whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.”

A thought leader in the application of physical chemistry to natural waters, Millero has helped to define this field of endeavor for the last four decades. His scientific output is notable for its depth and quality. Millero’s earliest and most widely cited works include those that feature the measurement and parameterization of molar volumes and compressibility of electrolytes, and the equation of state for seawater. His research on the carbonate system in the world’s oceans has contributed to our understanding of changes in the global flux of CO2 across the air-sea interface and the oceanic uptake of this greenhouse gas.

His publications span the physical chemistry of natural systems work on molar volumes and compressibility to thermochemical measurements; physical and chemical properties of water and seawater; models of ionic interactions and physical properties of electrolytes; effects of pressure on ionic equilibria; kinetics; bacteria interactions with metals and surfaces; and particle-metal interactions. He has published more than 413 articles in refereed journals, 32 book chapters, five books, and numerous reports and abstracts. Particularly noteworthy publications include his three editions of Chemical Oceanography (1991, 1996, and 2006) and his book Physical Chemistry of Natural Waters (2000).

Millero has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, such as Sigma Xi Professor of the Year (1989), the ONR Ocean Educator Award (1990), University of Miami Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award (1996), University of Miami Provost Award for Scholarly Activity (1998-1999), and the American Chemistry Society Geochemistry Division Medal (2001).

Roni Avissar, dean of Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, will present “Deforestation and Reforestation as a Model for a Regenerative System” on Thursday, March 4 from 4 to 5 p.m. at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Retter Auditorium. For more information, contact Carol Laracuente at 305-243-5579 or e-mail claracuente@med.miami.edu.

The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is listed as one of the top “heavy hitters” in the recently released Essential Science Indicators list published by Thomson Reuters. The database contains a total of 43,500 worldwide institutions over a 10-year period in the fields of atmospheric research, oceanography, and geology. UM was ranked among the top five U.S. academic institutions along with Harvard, Princeton, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. UM is listed 13th in the world for geosciences.

“This ranking provides recognition of the importance of the science we are conducting here at the University of Miami,” said Roni Avissar, dean of the Rosenstiel School. “We are delighted to be listed among such esteemed peer institutions. Our faculty members and students richly deserve the credit for their ongoing work in the laboratory and in the field, diligently studying our planet and helping us to better understand the processes that govern it.”

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The images were obtained using data from Japan’s ALOS satellite and made available to the scientific community through the efforts of the European Space Agency and GEO, the Group of Earth Observation.

Scientists at the University of Miami have analyzed images based on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations taken before and just after Haiti’s earthquake on January 12. The images reveal surprising new details.

The images were obtained using data from Japan’s ALOS satellite and made available to the scientific community through the efforts of the European Space Agency and GEO, the Group of Earth Observation, an umbrella group of many countries that promotes the exchange of satellite data to efficiently observe our planet.

According to the new data, the earthquake rupture did not reach the surface—unusual for a quake this size. More importantly, the images confirm that only the western half of the fault segment that last ruptured in 1751 actually ruptured in the current earthquake. “We’re still waiting for the other shoe to drop,” says Tim Dixon, professor of geology and geophysics at UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

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Trevor Corson, whose bestseller The Secret Life of Lobsters was named a Best Nature Book of the Year by USA Today and Discover magazine, will be the second speaker in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science’s Sea Secrets lecture series on Wednesday, February 17. Corson spent two years working as a commercial lobster fisherman in Maine before chasing a team of renegade lobster scientists around New England for a year to write his book. He will speak at 6 p.m. in the Rosenstiel School Auditorium on Virginia Key, and his books will be available for sale after the lecture. The lectures will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Corson will share his insights into the hilarious undersea antics of lobsters, the rugged lives of the fishermen who catch them, and a rare conservation success story where fishermen and scientists collaborated to protect this important resource in an age of vanishing seafood. Corson’s second book, The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice, was selected as an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review; it also won “Best American Food Literature Book” of 2007 in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards and was selected as a Best Food Book of the Year by Zagat. The success of the book led Corson in an unexpected direction as he became the only “Sushi Concierge” in the United States—a role that he continues to fill with regular events and dinners in several cities—and as guest judge on the Food Network’s hit show Iron Chef America.

With support from close to $90 million in stimulus-backed grant awards—and counting—from various federal agencies, University of Miami investigators have embarked on research projects aimed at finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Stimulus-backed research is being conducted on UM's Coral Gables, Miller School, and Rosenstiel School campuses.

The bioreactor that will enable Weiyong Gu to analyze the growth characteristics of intervertebral tissue without having to remove samples from the device hasn’t even been invented yet. But the University of Miami biomedical engineer is in a race against time, working long hours in his lab to build the instrument that could help pave the way for advanced techniques in the engineering of human tissue to replace organs.

At UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the challenge that confronts geochemist Peter Swart lies not in building a new device, but in using existing tools to determine whether the technique of carbon capture can actually help solve the global-warming crisis.

Both investigators are conducting their research with the blessing and backing of Uncle Sam. They are beneficiaries of hefty grants that have been flowing from the federal government’s coffers ever since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) pumped $10.4 billion into the National Institutes of Health, with $8.2 billion earmarked for scientific research priorities.

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Kenneth Broad

Blue holes are Earth’s least explored and most dangerous frontiers. University of Miami scientists and students will be featured in a PBS NOVA special documenting a National Geographic Society expedition to the blue holes of the Bahamas, led by Kenneth Broad, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science associate professor and director of the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy at UM. Broad led an interdisciplinary team of climatologists, paleontologists, and anthropologists, including marine geologist Peter Swart from the Rosenstiel School, to investigate the hidden history of Earth’s climate as revealed in this spectacularly beautiful alternate underwater universe. “Extreme Cave Diving” airs on Tuesday, February 9 at 8 p.m. on WPBT in Miami. For more information, visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/cavedive/about.html.

The University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Ocean Research and Education Foundation have announced the roster of distinguished scientists and explorers who will speak in the 2010 Sea Secrets lecture series. The lectures, which are free and open to the public, are designed to provide insight and information about the oceans that cover two-thirds of our planet. The programs take place in the Rosenstiel School Auditorium, beginning with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and followed by the lecture at 6 p.m.

Sponsored by The Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation, The Charles N. and Eleanor Knight Leigh Foundation, and Southern Wine and Spirits, Sea Secrets is designed for the South Florida non-scientific community.

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The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science  partners with the Chopin Foundation of the United States in welcoming critically acclaimed concert pianist Mei-Ting Sun. The recital will take place on Sunday, January 17 at 4 p.m. in the Rosenstiel School Auditorium, located at 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key. Tickets are $25 and include a waterfront wine and hors d’oeuvres reception following the recital. They can be purchased by calling 305-421-4061 or e-mailing clovinsky@rsmas.miami.edu.

Mei-Ting began his life on the stage at the prestigious Spring of Shanghai Festival at the age of 5. Since then he has performed in many of the world’s greatest concert halls and performing arts centers, such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Orchestra Hall in Minnesota, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Tonhalle in Zurich, Filharmonia Narodowa in Warsaw, and Obecni Dum in Prague. In total, Mei-Ting’s career has led him to celebrated performances in 19 countries on five continents.

Mei-Ting has won numerous prestigious awards, including unanimous first prizes in the Chopin Foundation’s 7th National Chopin Piano Competition in 2005 (U.S.A.) and the first Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition in 2002. In 2008 he was invited to perform for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, in honor of an award presented to Nobel Laureate Al Gore.

Opportunities to acquire effective writing skills can be rare in science. Such an opportunity came to the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science last month, when the school served as the site of a writing workshop led by Judith Swan. Swan, associate director of the Writing Program at Princeton University, is co-author the seminal paper “The Science of Science Writing.” Almost 180 people registered for the daylong workshop, which covered strategies for writing clearly and compellingly. The workshop was funded through a SEEDS (Scientists and Engineers Expanding Diversity and Success) You Choose Award to Paquita Zuidema, assistant professor of meteorology and physical oceanography. Above: Rosenstiel meteorology and physical oceanography researcher Gustavo Carvalho, right, consults with Swan during a break.

The University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science will be the location for a workshop entitled “Predicting the Climate of Coming Decades” from January 11 – 14, 2010. The goal of the event is to bring together researchers involved in developing climate prediction systems and potential users to discuss the prospects for decadal climate prediction.

“The climate of the coming decades is going to be influenced by human-induced changes as well as ‘natural’ fluctuations; to date, these have been examined separately,” said Amy Clement, associate professor of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at UM’s Rosenstiel School, and workshop co-chair. “However, in order to plan for, manage, and adapt to these changes, we need to make predictions that include both naturally occurring and human-induced climate changes.

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UM student Nikki Bruno, right, shows three students how to handle a sea star.

About 200 youngsters from Dunbar, Holmes, Miami Gardens, and Earlington Heights elementary schools took part in the second annual Ocean Kids Day on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus last Saturday. During the event, children rotated among 15 science stations, peering at marine life through microscopes, handling sea stars and sea urchins in touch tanks, and participating in many other conservation and ocean-related activities.

The event, which brings together children from high-needs schools for a day of marine science adventures, was hosted by UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Future Interests in Nature and the Sea Foundation, and the atmospheric science honor society Rho Rho Rho.

From left, professor of marine biology and fisheries Sharon Smith, Rosenstiel School Dean Roni Avissar, Miller and Rosenstiel researcher Lora Fleming, and Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt at the BMAA and The Brain conference.

The University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine joined forces with the Institute of Ethnomedicine and the Center for Oceans and Human Health at UM for a dialogue on “BMAA and the Brain” held on November 4. The program, introduced jointly by Rosenstiel School Dean Roni Avissar and Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, highlighted the University’s unique interdisciplinary research in Oceans and Human Health and efforts now under way in ethnomedicine, neurosciences, toxicology, marine biology, and oceanography.

One noteworth project involves research into cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) found on land and in freshwater and the oceans that can produce BMAA, an environmental neurotoxin that affects humans and animals. BMAA has been linked to age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, and Parkinson’s in humans.

Paul Cox of the Institute of Ethnomedicine discussed the genesis of his studies in Guam and the widespread neurological disease associated with the Chamorro people, which is now being linked to the ingestion of animals that eat cycads with cyanobacteria. Deborah Mash, director of UM’s Brain Endowment Bank who is currently testing for BMAA in postmortem human brain samples, spoke of the vital importance of the brain biorepository and the preliminary findings she and her team are making in their studies of neurodegenerative brains and control brains.

Larry Brand, a professor at the Rosenstiel School discussed BMAA as a toxin in the marine food web.

The discussion was followed by a reception hosted by the codirectors of the Center for Oceans and Human Health, Lora Fleming, who holds joint appointments at in epidemiology and public health at the Miller School and marine biology and fisheries at Rosenstiel, and Sharon Smith, professor of marine biology and fisheries.