We Are Pioneers

Dr. Hennige’s research centers around the impact of climate change and pollutants on marine organisms and ecosystems, with particular focus on tropical and cold-water coral reefs and seagrass meadows. Sebastian studied Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of St. Andrews before taking a PhD at the University of Essex. Following this, he went to the University of Delaware (USA) and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK) before moving to the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Hennige has spoken at COP 26 and 27 on the impacts of ocean

acidification to vulnerable marine ecosystems, highlighting the role of ‘coralporosis’ in future deep-sea coral reef loss. Hennige has been a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), a contributing author to the 2nd World Ocean Assessment (UNESCO), and lead editor of a United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) report on the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biodiversity.

Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is a senior research scientist at NASA/Goddard Ins1tute for Space Studies and an Adjunct professor at Columbia University. She directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia. In collaboration with GISS climate modelers and LDEO geochemists, she is studying conditions of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene that are archived in sediments from lakes and wetlands. Peteet documents past changes in vegetation, derived from analyses of pollen and spores, plant and animal macrofossils, carbon, and charcoal embedded in sediments. Her research provides local

and regional records of ancient vegetational and climate history. One recent focus has been the sequestration of carbon in northern peatland and coastal marshes: ecosystems that are now vulnerable to climate change and poten1ally release significant carbon back into the atmosphere.  Peteet also has performed climate modeling experiments to test hypotheses concerning the last glacial maximum and abrupt climate change. She is interested in climate sensitivity and in how past climate changes and ecological shifts might provide insight on future climate change.

Don Anderson is a Senior Scientist in the Biology Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He earned three degrees from MIT – a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1970, and a MS (1975) and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1977.  He joined the scientific staff at WHOI in 1978.  He has received the following awards: the Stanley W. Watson Chair for Excellence in Oceanography (WHOI, 1993), the NOAA Environmental Hero award (1999), the Dr. David L. Belding Award (Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission, 2005), the Yasumoto Lifetime Achievement Award (the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae , 2006), the Bostwick H. Ketchum Award (2017), and the Lifetime Research and Service Award from the US National Harmful Algal Bloom Committee.  Anderson is the former director of WHOI’s Coastal Ocean Institute (COI), and presently serves as Director of the Cooperative Institute for North Atlantic Research (CINAR). Anderson also serves as Director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms.

Anderson’s research focus is on toxic or harmful algal blooms (HABs), commonly called “red tides”.  His research ranges from molecular and physiological studies of growth, sexuality, and toxin production to the large-scale oceanography and ecology of the “blooms” of these microorganisms, including numerical modeling, forecasting, and a range of monitoring and management strategies, many reliant on novel instrumentation and biosensors.  Another new areaof researchis on the effects of climate change and global warming on HABs and coastal communities.  Anderson is heavily involved in national and international program development for research, monitoring, and management of red tides, marine biotoxins, and HABs.  He has testified nine times before Congressional committees, and has been actively involved in legislation and appropriations related to HABs and hypoxia. Anderson is the author, co-author, or editor of over 330 scientific papers and 14 books

Dr. Hennige’s research centers around the impact of climate change and pollutants on marine organisms and ecosystems, with particular focus on tropical and cold-water coral reefs and seagrass meadows. Sebastian studied Marine and Environmental Biology at the University of St. Andrews before taking a PhD at the University of Essex. Following this, he went to the University of Delaware (USA) and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK) before moving to the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Hennige has spoken at COP 26 and 27 on the impacts of ocean

acidification to vulnerable marine ecosystems, highlighting the role of ‘coralporosis’ in future deep-sea coral reef loss. Hennige has been a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), a contributing author to the 2nd World Ocean Assessment (UNESCO), and lead editor of a United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) report on the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biodiversity.

Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is a senior research scientist at NASA/Goddard Ins1tute for Space Studies and an Adjunct professor at Columbia University. She directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia. In collaboration with GISS climate modelers and LDEO geochemists, she is studying conditions of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene that are archived in sediments from lakes and wetlands. Peteet documents past changes in vegetation, derived from analyses of pollen and spores, plant and animal macrofossils, carbon, and charcoal embedded in sediments. Her research provides local

and regional records of ancient vegetational and climate history. One recent focus has been the sequestration of carbon in northern peatland and coastal marshes: ecosystems that are now vulnerable to climate change and poten1ally release significant carbon back into the atmosphere.  Peteet also has performed climate modeling experiments to test hypotheses concerning the last glacial maximum and abrupt climate change. She is interested in climate sensitivity and in how past climate changes and ecological shifts might provide insight on future climate change.

Don Anderson is a Senior Scientist in the Biology Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He earned three degrees from MIT – a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1970, and a MS (1975) and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1977.  He joined the scientific staff at WHOI in 1978.  He has received the following awards: the Stanley W. Watson Chair for Excellence in Oceanography (WHOI, 1993), the NOAA Environmental Hero award (1999), the Dr. David L. Belding Award (Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission, 2005), the Yasumoto Lifetime Achievement Award (the International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae , 2006), the Bostwick H. Ketchum Award (2017), and the Lifetime Research and Service Award from the US National Harmful Algal Bloom Committee.  Anderson is the former director of WHOI’s Coastal Ocean Institute (COI), and presently serves as Director of the Cooperative Institute for North Atlantic Research (CINAR). Anderson also serves as Director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms.

Anderson’s research focus is on toxic or harmful algal blooms (HABs), commonly called “red tides”.  His research ranges from molecular and physiological studies of growth, sexuality, and toxin production to the large-scale oceanography and ecology of the “blooms” of these microorganisms, including numerical modeling, forecasting, and a range of monitoring and management strategies, many reliant on novel instrumentation and biosensors.  Another new areaof researchis on the effects of climate change and global warming on HABs and coastal communities.  Anderson is heavily involved in national and international program development for research, monitoring, and management of red tides, marine biotoxins, and HABs.  He has testified nine times before Congressional committees, and has been actively involved in legislation and appropriations related to HABs and hypoxia. Anderson is the author, co-author, or editor of over 330 scientific papers and 14 books