Nostr notes by MBARI (Unofficial)

MBARI hosts MARINE Connections Colloquium for local early-career ...

2026-10-31T13:16:51Z

MBARI hosts MARINE Connections Colloquium for local early-career marine scientists

This week, MBARI hosted marine science students and early-career professionals from the Monterey Area Research Institutions’ Network for Education (MARINE) for an immersive day of networking and professional development with peers from across Monterey Bay.
Roughly 75 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, and other ocean professionals attended the MARINE Connections Colloquium at MBARI. Image: Anik Grearson © 2026 MBARI
The MARINE program connects graduate students and early-career professionals in the Monterey Bay area through interdisciplinary networking and professional development activities. The network brings together students and faculty from seven organizations for mentoring and skills development that will help shape future ocean leaders. Members include California State University, Monterey Bay, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Naval Postgraduate School, Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Station, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The MARINE Connections Colloquium at MBARI on October 29 offered a full day of lightning talks, panels, and networking for local marine science graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, new faculty, and science communicators. Roughly 75 participants attended the colloquium to share snapshots of current research projects, spark new collaborations, and learn about ocean career opportunities. In addition to students from the MARINE network, researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, NOAA, and USGS also participated in the colloquium.
The event was co-organized by MBARI Graduate Research Assistant Anik Grearson, who is a co-chair of the MARINE committee, a PhD student at UC Santa Cruz, and a member of MBARI’s Biodiversity and Biooptics Team. Grearson presented a lightning talk about her research to understand the evolution of deep-sea ctenophores. MBARI Science Communication Fellow Rose Dalrymple and MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Olívia Soares Pereira participated in panel discussions about ocean career pathways. The event concluded with an inspiring keynote address from MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius.
MBARI is committed to fostering the next generation of ocean explorers. We strive to make ocean science and engineering careers accessible to all. Events like the MARINE Connections Colloquium help spark curiosity and collaboration and give future ocean leaders the skills needed to advance ocean science and conservation.
The MARINE Connections Colloquium was supported by Stanford University’s Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement (SPICE) initiative.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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#marineconnections #connectionscolloquium #montereybay #science #santacruz #stanforduniversity #anikgrearson #hopkinsmarine #marinelaboratories #landingmarine

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Light in the ocean Expedition log by MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow ...

2026-10-22T12:57:18Z

Light in the ocean

Expedition log by MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Natasha Picciani and MBARI Senior Research Technician Lena Vincent
When we think of animal eyes, humans, birds, and cephalopods might come to mind. But gelatinous animals like medusa jellies also have eyes that vary in complexity and rely on light sensing for several important biological functions. In the deep sea, the dominant light deep-sea animals detect isn’t sunlight, but living light: brilliant displays of bioluminescence. Although these phenomena are common in the ocean, we know surprisingly little about the full diversity of ways organisms interact with light. One of our main goals as a research team is to better understand how animals produce and sense bioluminescent light in the ocean.
MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow Natasha Picciani peers inside one of the ROV samplers that has just brought a deep-sea jelly up to the ship. Image: Kyra Schlining © 2026 MBARI
On this research expedition aboard R/V David Packard, we are collecting animals to characterize their light-sensing capabilities, document their bioluminescent displays, and prepare samples for further study using the advanced genetic and biochemical tools we have on shore.
We are particularly interested in examining poorly-studied animals with unique light-producing and light-sensing chemistries to better understand the evolution of these traits across the tree of life. So far, we have successfully collected many samples that will be useful for this. During our blue-water scuba dives near the surface and collections with MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts thousands of meters underwater, we encountered numerous medusae, ctenophores, and siphonophores, including some deep-sea medusae with pigment eye spots in unusual places and shallow-water ones with eyespots that make them strongly reactive to light.
On two of our ROV dives to below 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), we were lucky enough to encounter a rare bathypelagic nudibranch—a swimming snail—called Bathydevius caudactylus, which was described in 2024 by MBARI scientists Steve Haddock and Bruce Robison. We were really excited to find them because this species is one of the few known bioluminescent swimming nudibranchs, and its biochemistry is completely unknown.
We were able to collect these two nudibranchs and observe them in our shipboard dark room to document their bioluminescent properties, including the color of their light, which is a beautiful blue-green. We preserved the samples for further study to identify the genes responsible for light production and compare them with those in other known bioluminescent systems.
On this trip, we’ve also collected a number of other bioluminescent animals, including sponges, polychaete worms, and comb jellies, as well as filmed light displays in situ using an ultra-sensitive low-light camera mounted on the ROV. We’re really excited to see what we learn from all of these amazing animals!
Team
Directory
Aaron Micallef
Senior Scientist/Marine Geologist
Collaborators
Jong Kuk Hong (Korean Polar Research Institute), Young Keun Jin (Korean Polar Research Institute), Tae Siek Rhee (Korean Polar Research Institute), Scott Dallimore (Geological Survey of Canada). Mathieu Duchesne (Geological Survey of Canada)
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#light #mbaripostdoctoral #fellownatasha #natashapicciani #ocean #rov #lenavincent #technicianlena #kyraschlining #davidpackard

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Siphonophores, served cold Expedition log by Graduate Student ...

2026-10-22T12:31:24Z

Siphonophores, served cold

Expedition log by Graduate Student Collaborator Ethan Kahn, Yale University
I’m a new graduate student in the Dunn Lab at Yale University, where we are interested in the biology and evolution of siphonophores, a group of long, slender jellies. In the past couple of months, I’ve read a lot about these animals, but because they mostly live far from shore in the open ocean, I had never seen one in person. Being invited to join an MBARI expedition on R/V David Packard has been an incredible chance for me to encounter live siphonophores and learn about their anatomy, taxonomy, behavior, and environments.
My work begins at the end of the day when the ROV brings precious specimens up from the deep ocean. Image: Kyra Schlining © 2026 MBARI
My first challenge: figuring out what in the world I’m looking at. Siphonophores have many specialized body units, called zooids, which are connected by a linear stem. Multi-zooid siphonophores evolved from ancestral solitary forms, and within the siphonophore, each individual zooid functions like an organ, specialized to help the animal swim, feed, defend itself, or reproduce. These zooids are often densely packed on the stem, and it takes a microscope plus a specialized eye to distinguish the various bumps and growths and recognize their functions. As I encounter specimens, I am preserving tissues for research—some samples will provide crucial data for ongoing projects, while others will be deposited in a natural history museum collection as a permanent record of the biodiversity we encountered on this expedition.
Using MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts, we’re able to collect deep-sea siphonophores that live hundreds or even thousands of meters underwater. After a full day of exploring, Doc Ricketts returns to the ship in the evening, and then my work can really begin. I scoop and ladle the delicate jellies into a photo tank, keeping them submerged at all times. Any time out of the water can introduce air bubbles or cause the temperamental animals to fragment. After photographing the full body, I look at each siphonophore under a dissecting microscope, where I can view each zooid individually, tracing ridges and noting colony arrangements that help identify each species. Some days, I work into the wee hours of the morning, while on others I only have a couple of specimens to process and can turn in by 10:00 p.m., but either way I’m up early the next day to watch the ROV dive back into the near-freezing ocean depths.
It is especially cool to see how our knowledge is constantly expanding. For example, a new study coauthored by MBARI Senior Scientist Steve Haddock and members of my lab at Yale described two new siphonophore species in the genus Bargmannia, which we have been able to see on this cruise. This publication came out just in time to help me identify specimens that can provide important data for future phylogenetic and biochemical studies on these now-distinct species. Our expedition opens a small window into a strange and vast world, and I’m grateful to be along for the ride, witnessing and documenting an ecosystem that is too alien and too beautiful to be found anywhere else in the known universe.
Team
Directory
Aaron Micallef
Senior Scientist/Marine Geologist
Collaborators
Jong Kuk Hong (Korean Polar Research Institute), Young Keun Jin (Korean Polar Research Institute), Tae Siek Rhee (Korean Polar Research Institute), Scott Dallimore (Geological Survey of Canada). Mathieu Duchesne (Geological Survey of Canada)
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#yaleuniversity #graduatestudent #siphonophores #mbari #docricketts #ethankahn #collaboratorethan #rov #davidpackard #dunnlab

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Ready, set, dive! Expedition log by Graduate Fellow Javiera ...

2026-10-21T05:20:14Z

Ready, set, dive!

Expedition log by Graduate Fellow Javiera Fuentes Guíñez
The CoMPAS Lab designed the MOLA AUV to be a portable platform for seafloor mapping and ocean exploration.
On Monday, our team journeyed from MBARI to Milos. The long day of travel started with a red-eye flight from San Francisco, California, to Athens, Greece, with a layover in London. After touching down in Greece, we loaded all of our gear into a van—a real-life game of Tetris—for the ferry from Athens to Milos, the little MOLA safely tucked away in a hard suitcase. One last 20-minute drive across the island, and there it was: Paleochori Beach. Tired and jet-lagged, the team and MOLA had officially arrived.
We spent the first day exploring the area, scouting the best spot for our base station, and working out the logistics for deploying MOLA in the Sea of Crete.
Next, we unpacked our many cases and ran a dry test, setting everything up as if we were about to deploy and confirming we had communications with the vehicle’s “brains” and sensors. The team went to bed excited for the next day’s dive in Paleochori Bay.
On Friday morning, we packed our boxes, loaded the car, and drove to Paleochori Beach. There, we ballasted the vehicle, ran through our pre-dive checks, and deployed MOLA right from the beach. Onwards and downwards it went!
MOLA’s main science camera gave the team a closer look at several “chimneys” releasing gas bubbles from the seafloor in Paleochori Bay. These bubbles contain a mix of carbon dioxide and methane. Image: © 2026 MBARI
Over the next four hours, MOLA explored the seafloor with our science camera and saw an expansive hydrothermal vent field. For the first time, we watched through MOLA’s “eyes” as gas bubbles escaped through the sandy seafloor, circulating through the volcanic subsurface along fractures and permeable pathways.
MOLA’s sensor systems collected detailed data about these vent fields. A monocular science camera captured high-resolution 4K video that we will later process for object detection. Our mapping rig, carrying a monocular RGB camera and a pair of grayscale stereo cameras, collected imagery that will allow us to reconstruct parts of the seafloor in Paleochori Bay using techniques like SLAM and photogrammetry.
All of these images and other data will be processed into maps with software tools the CoMPAS Lab has already proven in the field. These data will also help us test new algorithms the lab is building for vent detection and characterization.
CoMPAS Lab engineering innovation is bringing the vent fields of Milos to life. A reliable navigation stack powers the MOLA’s mapping software. Ours combines three sensors—a USBL, a DVL, and an IMU—along with drivers and algorithms developed by the team to make them work together and estimate the vehicle’s position. On top of the navigation stack sits our six-degrees-of-freedom controller, also developed in-house, which lets the MOLA AUV move in any direction: up and down, side to side, forward and backward, as well as pitch, roll, and yaw. The controller uses the position information from the navigation stack to guide the vehicle to its target.
While we’re testing and refining our mapping sensors and software, we keep the vehicle tethered back to shore, but in the future, MOLA will be able to run missions all on its own.
As the sun set, MOLA returned to shore carrying a treasure trove of data for MBARI’s engineers and our collaborators from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA).
MOLA is now recharging and getting ready for the next dive!
Team
Directory
Javiera Fuentes Guíñez
Graduate Fellow
Collaborators
TK
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https://www.mbari.org/news/ready-set-dive/

#mola #paleochoribay #fellowjaviera #fuentesguinez #graduatefellow #milos #lab #compaslab #dive #beach

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Into the blue Expedition log by MBARI Graduate Research Assistant ...

2026-10-20T23:16:52Z

Into the blue

Expedition log by MBARI Graduate Research Assistant Anik Grearson
We woke up bright and early with the sunrise to launch remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts on a dive to 2,200 meters (approximately 7,200 feet) below the surface at a station north of Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain offshore of Central California. While part of our team stayed in the control room and worked with the ROV pilots to observe and collect deep-sea midwater animals, Steve, Lena, Shannon, Drew, and I set off in a smaller boat to collect shallow-water animals just below the surface using a specialized scuba technique called blue-water diving. In this setup, divers are tethered together via a central down-line to control our descent and ascent, and so we don’t drift too far apart from each other.
The siphonophore Athorybia rosacea is typically found in warmer waters. Image: Anik Grearson © 2026 MBARI
The amazing team on R/V David Packard got the dive boat safely over into the water, and we motored off with our trusty boatswain, Scott, at the helm. Today, a pod of common dolphins joined us, playfully leaping out of the water and riding the bow of the small boat as we headed a kilometer away from the larger vessel. Once on station, we donned our gear, rolled backward into the water, clipped into our lines, and dropped down 18 meters (60 feet) below the surface. We found ourselves surrounded by gelatinous animals of all kinds: delicate jellies, beautiful siphonophores, large salp chains, and hungry ctenophores! The water surrounding us had a bluish-green tinge, and the sunlight shining from above illuminated the near-invisible creatures we were seeking. Many of these animals are so fragile that the only way to truly see their natural behaviors and morphology is on a blue-water dive like this.
We sometimes encounter rare and unexpected organisms on blue-water dives. Today, we found a species of tropical ctenophore called Ocyropsis, which has muscular lobes that it uses for quick swimming to escape predators. We also found a beautiful pink siphonophore, Athorybia rosacea, which uses its stinging tentacles like a jig to catch its prey. We typically only see Ocyropsis and Athorybia in warmer waters farther south, so we were surprised to find them 60 miles off the coast of Big Sur, California. As El Niño strengthens, warm water is moving up the California coast. During past El Niño events, we have seen visitors from tropical waters here in Central California, so we expected to see some southern species venturing farther north. We even encountered a tiny ribbonfish larva who greeted us with its long, thread-like fin rays.
We carefully collected a variety of gelatinous animals in glass jars and brought them back to R/V David Packard for closer inspection. Back on the ship, our team examined, photographed, and preserved these specimens for scientific study. Our lab is particularly interested in gelatinous marine animals, such as ctenophores, jellies, and siphonophores. These precious samples will allow us to answer many new biological questions, including:
Many ctenophores, siphonophores, and jellies produce their own light, a phenomenon known as bioluminescence. How do they do that? Why do they do that?
Some jellies also have light-sensitive structures and even simple eyes. What is the molecular and genetic basis of light detection in these animals?
Some of these shallow species have relatives living much deeper, even several thousand meters below the surface. How do some species survive in the deep sea, where the pressure is immense and temperatures drop to near freezing, while other species live only at the surface?
The open ocean has seemingly no geographic barriers, so how do distinct populations of gelatinous pelagic species occur?
After a productive morning of diving and processing samples, we had a delicious lunch prepared by the ship’s incredible cook, Sue. The next step is to get ready to process the precious deep–sea specimens coming up on the ROV, which usually takes us into the late evening. Then we get up tomorrow and do it all again! We hope our wetsuits have dried out a bit before the morning. While these long days at sea are a lot of work, very few people get to encounter these weird and wonderful animals, so I feel very lucky to be a part of this expedition exploring the largest and least understood habitat on our planet.
Team
Directory
Anik Grearson
Graduate Research Assistant
Collaborators
TK
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https://www.mbari.org/news/into-the-blue/

#anikgrearson #centralcalifornia #davidsonseamount #docricketts #davidpackard #assistantanik #mbarigraduate #athorybia #rov #blue

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MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius elected to France’s ...

2026-10-20T22:51:36Z

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius elected to France’s National Order of Merit

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius has been awarded the title of Knight of the French National Order of Merit, recognizing her contributions to ocean science and policy.
Bestowed by the President of the French Republic, the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite recognizes individuals who have dedicated more than 10 years of service to civil, military, and private service.
A global leader in ocean sciences, Boetius’s work has provided vital insight into the impacts of climate change on the ocean and polar ecosystems, especially changes to marine microbial communities. She has acted as a policy advisor to numerous national and international commissions on climate, biodiversity, and science innovation.
Boetius is a co-president of the board of trustees and executive direction for Mission Neptune, an international initiative under the high patronage of the President of the French Republic and the President of the European Commission that seeks to advance collective action for sustainable governance of the ocean.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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#antjeboetius #nationalorder #frenchrepublic #mbari #merit #france #missionneptune #europeancommission #knight

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A mission across disciplines and continents Expedition log by ...

2026-10-17T12:44:33Z

A mission across disciplines and continents

Expedition log by Graduate Fellow Javiera Fuentes Guíñez
Our collaborators from NKUA have done extensive work to map the geology of Milos and the surrounding seafloor. MBARI’s MOLA AUV will expand those efforts into deeper waters in Paleochori Bay, Spathi Bay, and the northwest portion of Milos Bay. Image courtesy of Paraskevi Nomikou/NKUA
Beneath the warm waters that attract swimmers to the Greek island of Milos every summer, the seafloor is alive in a unique way. Gas bubbles rise from underwater vents and faults that cross the island, but scientists still don’t know much about seafloor processes in deeper waters, a crucial missing piece of the puzzle. For the next 10 days, the CoMPAS Lab team, our partners in MBARI’s Seafloor Processes Team, and our collaborators from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) are headed to Milos to change that.
Interdisciplinary work is embedded at the heart of MBARI’s mission. We believe that scientists and engineers working side by side are the key to advancing our understanding of a vast and changing ocean. So when NKUA Professor Paraskevi (Evi) Nomikou proposed a new collaboration with MBARI Principal Engineer Giancarlo Troni to use our lab’s MOLA AUV to help close a mapping gap around Milos, the CoMPAS Lab didn’t hesitate. The team immediately began preparing MOLA AUV for the mission ahead.
Why Milos?
Evi has extensive experience studying the marine environment of Greece’s active submarine volcanic arc, which includes Milos. Here, active tectonic faults and numerous underwater vents make the island a fascinating natural laboratory—and one where science has a real impact on people. Earthquakes can trigger landslides and damage homes, putting residents and tourists at risk. During these seismic events, gases may escape from the vents more violently, making the island and its surroundings even more unstable. That’s why mapping and studying this area, and sharing what we learn with local authorities, matters not only for science, but also for the community that calls Milos home and depends on lucrative summer tourism.
The mapping gap
In previous studies, Evi and her students dove in coastal waters to map vents from the shoreline down to about 30 meters (100 feet), while the research vessel Meteor deployed instruments to characterize vents below 80 meters (about 260 feet). But between 30 and 80 meters, the seafloor remains a mystery. It’s too deep for divers to survey and too shallow for large research vessels with bulky remotely operated vehicles to operate. When Evi watched the CoMPAS Lab team deploy the MOLA AUV in the Maldives two years ago, she knew right away it was the perfect tool for the job.
The game plan
The CoMPAS Lab’s mission is to develop scalable robotic technology that can be shared with our peers to advance ocean exploration and science. Milos is the perfect challenge for the MOLA AUV. This little robot is deceptively powerful, equipped with advanced sensors developed by our lab, including forward-looking sonar, cameras, lasers, and AI-assisted tools. It’s portable enough to launch and recover straight from the beach or a small boat, and then the MOLA AUV can get to work characterizing vent fields.
That’s how our international and multidisciplinary team came together, drawn by a complex, active, and understudied environment that matters deeply to the people who live around it. Over the next 10 days, we’ll work to close this gap in knowledge, one dive at a time. Follow @compaslab on Instagram to discover Milos with us!
Team
Directory
Javiera Fuentes Guíñez
Graduate Fellow
Collaborators
TK
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https://www.mbari.org/news/a-mission-across-disciplines-and-continents/

#milos #compaslab #auv #nkua #mbari #seafloor #bay #spathibay #paleochoribay #fellowjaviera

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New research examines how food, fear, and physics drive group ...

2026-10-15T16:26:03Z

New research examines how food, fear, and physics drive group behaviors in marine life

The open ocean is a dynamic environment, where food is patchy, predators are plenty, and oceanographic conditions change constantly. Life in the pelagic environment—the offshore waters that extend from the sunlit surface through the twilight zone—requires unique adaptations for survival.
In a new paper in the scientific journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, MBARI Senior Scientist Kelly Benoit-Bird and William Oestreich—formerly a US National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at MBARI and now the leader of the collective ecology research group at the University of Zurich—review how collective behaviors like schooling and swarming, vertical migration, and cooperative foraging help ensure the survival of pelagic animals.
Benoit-Bird leads MBARI’s Acoustical Ocean Ecology Team, using a variety of advanced acoustic technologies to investigate how animals find dinner without becoming dinner themselves, and how group behaviors like schooling or cooperation affect predator-prey interactions.
Benoit-Bird and Oestreich have found that key features of the pelagic ocean—including the limitation and patchy distribution of food resources, the lack of cover, and the motion of the medium itself—have repeatedly led to the evolution of collective behavior in marine animals. Examples from animals as small as plankton and as large as whales, from the surface to the deep sea, as well as invertebrate and vertebrate taxa illustrate how fear, physics, and food lead to the evolution of group behaviors.
Their work demonstrates how observations of life in the largest living space on Earth are providing new insights into the evolutionary drivers and adaptive significance of collective behavior and group living.
Research Publication:
Benoit-Bird, K.J. and W.K. Oestreich. 2026. Food, fear, and physics drive collective behaviour in the ocean’s pelagic zone. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2025.0208
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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https://www.mbari.org/news/new-research-examines-how-food-fear-and-physics-drive-group-behaviors-in-marine-life/

MBARI engineers share latest developments in autonomous robotics ...

2026-10-15T08:40:53Z

MBARI engineers share latest developments in autonomous robotics at AUV2026 symposium

Earlier this month, engineers from MBARI’s CoMPAS Lab and LRAUV Team participated in the 2026 IEEE OES AUV Symposium (AUV2026), sharing new developments from their work in autonomous robotics with peers in the ocean engineering community.
MBARI engineers have developed a variety of autonomous robots for studying marine ecosystems. Conferences like the AUV2026 symposium provide an opportunity to share MBARI’s expertise with our peers around the world. Image: Quinn Shemet © 2026 MBARI
Hosted by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) every two years, this symposium brings the marine robotics community together to share ideas and foster future research and collaboration. The conference focuses on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), autonomous surface vessels (ASVs), underwater gliders, and Lagrangian floats. MBARI is a global leader in developing autonomous technologies to scale observations of marine ecosystems and provide ocean health data urgently needed to inform decision-making about the future of marine life and resources.
Held in Southampton, England, September 1–3, AUV2026 explored all aspects of developing autonomous robots for science and industrial applications, including vehicle design, navigation and sensing, control and operations, and communication and data management.
Principal Engineer Giancarlo Troni and Research Engineer Sebastián Rodríguez shared new work developing control and sensor systems for the CoMPAS Lab’s agile MOLA AUV, while Software Engineer Quinn Shemet presented field results from an acoustic docking system for MBARI’s nimble LRAUV.
Together, these efforts showcase how MBARI engineers are taking new approaches in learning-based control and autonomous vehicle design from the lab into the ocean, developing practical technologies that can make underwater exploration more capable, efficient, and scalable.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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https://www.mbari.org/news/mbari-engineers-share-latest-developments-in-autonomous-robotics-at-auv2026-symposium/

MBARI Senior Scientist Chris Scholin named 2026 Marine Technology ...

2026-10-15T04:29:19Z

MBARI Senior Scientist Chris Scholin named 2026 Marine Technology Society Fellow

The Marine Technology Society (MTS) has named MBARI Outgoing President and CEO/Senior Scientist Chris Scholin the 2026 MTS Fellow. Part of the society’s annual awards, the designation as a Marine Technology Society Fellow is one of their highest accolades.
Scholin served as MBARI President and CEO from 2009 to 2025, championing the development of autonomous technologies that bring the lab to the ocean to observe dynamic ocean ecosystem processes. Now a senior scientist, his research focuses on the development and deployment of MBARI’s Environmental Sample Processor and other sensors to detect waterborne microorganisms and environmental DNA (eDNA) using molecular probe technology.
Established in 1975, the MTS Fellow award recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the society’s mission and distinguished accomplishments in their professional fields. Scholin was previously awarded the society’s Lockheed Martin Award for Ocean Science and Engineering in 2021. He currently serves as co-chair of the MTS eDNA Committee.
Scholin was presented with his award at the 2026 MTS Awards, held virtually on September 29 during the 2026 MTS Annual Meeting.
Meet the 2026 MTS Awardees.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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https://www.mbari.org/news/mbari-senior-scientist-chris-scholin-named-2026-marine-technology-society-fellow/

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius participates in 2026 Arctic ...

2026-10-15T01:42:25Z

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius participates in 2026 Arctic Circle Assembly

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius recently participated in the 2026 Arctic Circle Assembly, held October 8 to 10 in Reykjavik, Iceland. She brought her extensive experience in polar sciences to international discussions about the challenges facing Arctic environments and communities.
Hosted by the Arctic Circle network, the Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering focused on the Arctic, bringing together governments, organizations, businesses, universities, and Indigenous communities for international dialogue and cooperation on the future of this vulnerable region.
Boetius was invited to participate in the assembly’s final plenary session, “Science in the Play of Power and Politics,” a panel discussion moderated by H.E. Katrin Jakobsdottir, former Prime Minister of Iceland (2017–2024) and chair of the Arctic Circle’s Polar Dialogue. With fellow panelists Edward Parson from the UCLA School of Law and Karen Hallberg from the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Boetius discussed how science is providing tools and information that Arctic nations and communities need to guide decision-making about their future. She also presented in a session organized by the British Antarctic Survey, “Major Change in the Arctic Marine Ecosystem and What it Means.”
During the assembly, Boetius participated in several meetings as a member of the Arctic Circle Polar Dialogue Advisory Board. She also met a number of polar leaders to coordinate activities for Antarctica InSync—an integrated science program for observing life across Antarctica and the Southern Ocean—as well as the upcoming Fifth International Polar Year in 2032–2033 and the United Nations Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences.
For additional information or images relating to this article, please email pressroom@mbari.org.
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https://www.mbari.org/news/mbari-president-and-ceo-antje-boetius-participates-in-2026-arctic-circle-assembly/