Nominations are open for the Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization, for which all nontenured MIT faculty members from any Institute department are eligible. The deadline is Friday, Oct. 9.
Endowed by the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, the two-year chair opens the way for promising nontenured professors to undertake marine-related research that will further innovative uses of the ocean's resources. There are no restrictions on the area of research and any aspect of marine use and/or management may be addressed, whether social, political, environmental, economic or technical.
Each year, one or two new faculty members are appointed to the chair and receive $25,000 each in annual support. In 1998, Bettina Voelker, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the two-year chair for her proposal to study how organic matter affects the speciation of copper and cadmium in coastal waters. Dr. Voelker is investigating whether organic materials found in soils and natural waters contain binding sites that can form strong complexes with metals in seawater.
Department heads may submit one nomination every year. Final selection will be made by a committee that includes the vice president and dean for research, the dean of engineering, dean of science, chairman of the Sea Grant Committee and the director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program, following a review and recommendation from the full Sea Grant Committee. The vice president and dean for research will announce the new Doherty Professor in early spring 1999.
Anyone wishing to be nominated should contact his or her department head for procedures and selection criteria. For more information, contact ReRe Quinn, Rm E38-300, x3-9305.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 30, 1998.
