Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
In recent years, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded Dr. David Karl and Dr. Edward DeLong, both SOEST Faculty, individual grants totaling $4.2M to support their marine research. These awards are part of the Moore Foundation’s national Marine Microbiology Initiative that awarded 16 scientists from 14 different institutions a total of up to $35 million over five years to pursue pioneering research in the field of marine microbial ecology.
Moore funding enables teams at SOEST to explore how the trillions upon trillions of microscopic organisms at the base of the ocean’s food webs interact with each other and their environment. It will help scientists understand how the ocean’s most abundant yet smallest organisms affect the movement of nutrients in our oceans. The funding will also provide new insights—and lead to new and exciting questions—about our basic understanding of ocean ecosystems and pressing issues like climate change.
“We’re very excited and extremely grateful to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation” said Dr. Edward DeLong. “These awards will allow us to undertake new high-risk, high-gain research and technology programs, that would be difficult to implement using more traditional funding sources.”
The Marine Microbiology Initiative investigators were selected from a strong pool of applicants from around the world through an open competition. Awardees demonstrated creativity, innovation and potential to make major, new breakthroughs.
“Together, these scientists will challenge the way we think about our oceans,” added Moore Foundation Chief Program Officer Vicki Chandler. “Marine microbes make up over 90% of the biomass in the ocean, and we know they are critically linked to ocean health and productivity. But even with the advances of the last eight years in understanding who these microbes are, we know little about what they do and how they interact. With these awards, we’re helping support and connect scientists from across different disciplines to identify and fill these gaps in existing knowledge.”