MBL Fact Sheet
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit corporation.
Leadership
Chairman of the Board of Trustees: John W. Rowe, Columbia University
President and Director: Joan V. Ruderman
Speaker of the Corporation: Colleen M. Cavanaugh, Harvard University
Scientists and affiliated staff
A corps of more than 270 scientists and support personnel pursue research year-round. The staff is joined each year by more than 300 visiting scientists, summer staff, and research associates from hundreds of institutions around the world. The MBL Corporation has 436 members.
Award-Winning Science
Among the scientists with a significant affiliation with the MBL (scientists, course faculty and students) are 55 Nobel Prize winners (since 1929); 118 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators, early career scientists, international researchers, and professors (since 1960); 202 Members of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1960); and 178 Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1960).
Major Programs and Research Areas
Ecosystems Center: Ecosystems processes, biogeochemistry, and climate change
Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology & Evolution: Microbial ecology; genetics and metagenomics; molecular evolution
Bell Center for Regenerative Biology & Tissue Engineering: Cell, developmental and regenerative biology; tissue engineering and regeneration
Cellular Dynamics Program: Microscopy, imaging and cellular dynamics; cellular physiology and biocurrents; biosensors
Program in Sensory Physiology & Behavior: Sensory biology (especially vision, balance, hearing); cephalopod camouflage; animal behavior
Whitman Center for Visiting Research: Collaborative research by leading scientists from around the world
Other Research Programs: Scientific aquaculture
Educational Programs
MBL Discovery Courses: 25 courses providing advanced, laboratory-based research training in fields such as cellular physiology, embryology, neurobiology, and microbiology, including (in 2012) 582 students from 384 institutions and 48 countries; and 888 faculty, staff, and lecturers from 282 institutions and 20 countries.
Educational programs also include undergraduate education and independent research, graduate training, the Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Sciences, postdoctoral training, and community continuing education programs.
Major Partnerships
The Brown-MBL Partnership fosters research collaborations between scientists from the MBL and Brown University, and includes undergraduate training, a joint graduate program, graduate training grants, and collaborative research programs.
The Woods Hole Consortium is a research and educational alliance between the MBL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Woods Hole Research Center, focusing its joint initiatives on the interlocking issues of climate change, ecosystems health, and human well-being.
Encyclopedia of Life. The MBL is one of 13 Global Partner institutions in the Encyclopedia of Life, a website dedicated to providing online access to knowledge about the 1.9 million named species of animals, plants, and other life forms on Earth.
Scientific Conferences
The MBL hosts scientific meetings, conferences, and departmental retreats, accommodating annually more than 3,500 participants from around the world.
Resources
The MBLWHOI Library houses one of the world’s foremost print and electronic literature collections in the biological, biomedical, ecological, and oceanographic sciences.
The W. M. Keck Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics Facility is a high-throughput DNA template production and sequencing facility in the MBL’s Josephine Bay Paul Center.
The Marine Resources Department is an advanced facility for maintaining, culturing, and providing aquatic organisms essential to biological, biomedical, and ecological research.
National Xenopus Resource: breeds and maintains Xenopus (frog) genetic stocks; provides training in Xenopus husbandry, cell biology, imaging, genetics, transgenesis, and genomics.
The Biological Bulletin is a peer-reviewed, trans-disciplinary, international journal publishing outstanding experimental research on a wide range of organisms and biological topics, with an emphasis on marine models.
Finances
2012 Operating Budget: $42.6 million (48% government grants and contracts; 21% nonfederal grants and contracts; 7% contributions; 7% endowment earnings; 17% other)
Endowment: $64 million (as of Dec. 31, 2011)
Net Assets: $107 million (as of Dec. 31, 2011)
Updated Jan. 15, 2013. |
