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We've raised $225,439 so far, which is 90% to our goal! With just over one month left, we need your support!
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Dear Friends of Shoals Marine Laboratory,
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I just ordered a local turkey and I will be heading to the farmers' market this weekend for local veggies! I am excited to have a Thanksgiving completely infused with the beauty and the bounty of the Maine and New Hampshire seacoast! There is so much to be thankful for.
Here at SML, we are grateful for you! Celebrating the 50th year of Shoals has been a wonderful community reuniting/building experience for all. I am enjoying getting to know so many longtime and new SML supporters. I find inspiration and energy in your enthusiasm and dedication for marine science education, sustainability, and the magic that is Appledore.
With this year of SML celebration coming to a close, we find ourselves on the brink of obtaining our $250,000 SML Fund goal. We are so close - about $25,000 away - and we need your help to get there! Please consider making a gift before the end of the year so we can cap SML's 50th Anniversary with this wonderful achievement.
Click here to make a contribution.
As you make your way toward your own special Thanksgiving festivities, please accept our deep appreciation for your support, especially those on our Next 50 Committee! Thank you! Thank you!
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2017 Academic Calendar is Posted
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With 16 undergraduate credit courses and 3 college courses for high school students, SML's 2017 Academic Calendar is offically available on our website! Students - mark your calendars for the course(s) you want to take this summer! Alumni and friends - spread the word to any college students and high school students in your lives!
In 2017, Field Animal Behavior is returning (offered every other year), Island Archaeology will be digging into Smuttynose Island's past, and a brand new Marine Ecological Genomics class is slated for June. Plus our perennial favorites like Field Wildlife Forensics & Underwater Research (Dr. Jim Coyer's 37th year teaching this course!). Come dive into our island classroom!
Photo by Ron Sher
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The John M. Anderson Award Recipient
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October 26th, SML hosted its annual Open House at Cornell University. Each year, we present the John M. Anderson Award for excellence in natural history to a graduating Cornell senior.
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Dr. Jennifer Seavey and 2016 John M. Anderson award recipient, Jonah Morreale.
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Our 2016 recipient is the wonderfully impressive Jonah Morreale (Cornell '17). Jonah has been involved with SML since the summer after his freshmen year at Cornell, when he took Dr. Paula Mikkelsen's Biodiversity and Biology of Marine Invertebrates course. The following summer, Dr. Mikkelsen invited Jonah to be the teaching assistant for Field Marine Invertebrate Biology. Jonah returned to Appledore later that summer as an Intertidal Ecology Intern under the mentorship of Dr. Kathy Ann Miller and Dr. Chris Siddon.
Jonah's knowledge of the rocky intertidal impresses us all! One student in his Inverts class praised, "Jonah is a fantastic TA. His knowledge and grasp of the material is unbelievable." Congratulations Jonah! We were proud to present this award to you, and excited for the bright future you have ahead!
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Childe Hassam Art Exhibition Closes
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Shoals Marine Laboratory is honored to have played a part in the vision and interpretation of
American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals, featuring the works of impressionist painter Childe Hassam. Forty oil and watercolor paintings were exhibited this year at the
North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) in Raleigh and the
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, MA - showcasing Hassam's extraordinary attentiveness to place and detail on Appledore Island. Hassam initially came to Appledore as a guest of Celia Thaxter in 1883, and returned almost every year until 1915. In all, he created ~250 oil and watercolor paintings on Appledore - an estimated 10% of his lifetime portfolio.
The Hassam exhibition resulted from a chance encounter when John Coffey, Curator of American Art at NCMA, sent an email to SML in 2010 hoping to match names of Hassam's paintings to locations on Appledore. This message was forwarded to SML's former Assistant Director and current faculty member, Dr. Hal Weeks, who had an ongoing project locating Hassam's Appledore paintings. Emails led to visits beginning in 2011, more partners joined the curatorial team, and the exhibition was developed.
This summer, SML benefited from several collaborative day trips and overnight programs organized by NCMA and PEM to bring art enthusiasts and American art curators to Appledore Island. On Sunday, November 6th for the final day of the exhibition, Dr. Austen Barron Bailly, Curator of American Art at PEM, and SML Executive Director Dr. Jennifer Seavey led a special tour through the gallery - expertly combing art history and natural history. It was a fitting finale to an exciting and inspiring collaboration!
Immense thanks to Dr. Hal Weeks, John Coffey, Dr. Austen Barron Bailly, Kathy Burnside, and the teams at both the NCMA and PEM for making this year's Hassam exhibition tour a great success for all.
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Peabody Essex Museum Curator, Austen Barron Bailly, leads a tour of the Childe Hassam exhibition on the final day of the show.
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SML Alumni & Friends
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Thank you to those who have already updated your contact info with us for our Alumni & Friends database. If you haven't yet had the chance to do so, please click the button below to submit your contact info to SML and help us improve our contact network:
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Recent publications by SML faculty
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The SML community is privileged to include so many accomplished alumni, staff, faculty members, and supporters. We would like to take a moment to highlight a recent, peer-reviewed publication done by one of our esteemed community members.
Dr.
Jim Coyer on climate change and Arctic seaweed
Dr.
Jim Coyer, Underwater Research faculty and SML's Assistant Director for Academic Programs, is well-known for his high latitude algal research. This paper examines which rocky shores of the North Atlantic, Arctic, and North Pacific will display the greatest distributional change in the seaweed
Fucus distichus. Dr. Coyer and co-authors from Nord University in Norway used Ecological Niche Models to predict that rising temperatures will have low impact on the species' southern distribution limits, but will shift a species' northern distribution limits poleward into the high Arctic, thus creating new areas of niche overlap as intertidal macroalgae immigrate from the south. Although this distribution shift enriches biodiversity and opens up new seaweed-harvesting grounds, it will also trigger unpredictable changes in the structure and functioning of the Arctic intertidal ecosystem.
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In Closing,
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A couple of weeks ago at SML's Open House at Cornell, ~50 students came to learn about what SML might offer them in the summer ahead. It is so exciting to talk to these students and I am always interested to hear why they are drawn to SML. They cite a love of the ocean and marine life, their passion for science and learning, or classmates have recommended the experience. Several have already mapped out how SML programs will serve their educational path, and others just want to explore a Maine island and live in a community of scientists. These interests are typical of SML students from Cornell, UNH, and other schools across the globe. Can you imagine how awesome it is when these students arrive and immerse themselves in the SML community? What a rare opportunity to concentrate on one course at a time, to learn from a cohort of SML undergraduate interns, to converse with research scientists over shared meals in the dining hall, to go sailing with a seasoned boat captain who recounts tales of the high seas, to eat a lobster with both the fisherman who lives on the neighboring island and an invertebrate biologist. Heaven!
I personally can't help but
appreciate how the entire Shoals experience enforces a love of learning, a dedication to understanding science, and a careful consideration for how each person will employ lessons learned at SML to the world beyond our shores. I am already excited for next summer!
With deep appreciation and warm wishes for a lovely holiday season,
Jennifer Seavey, Ph.D.
Kingsbury Director of the Shoals Marine Laboratory
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