Nannoplankton: tiny algae that make big changes!
Nannoplankton are beautiful, tiny marine algae that both influence the climate and are affected by it. Scientists worldwide are increasingly eager to develop cutting-edge research to understand how this fascinating group of mineralizing organisms react to climate change and how such responses are likely to influence marine ecosystems and the climate of our planet. At the International Nannoplankton Association (INA) Foundation, we want to actively foster the upcoming generation of nannoplankton researchers through developing the Okada and McIntyre Graduate Research Fellowship, aiming at contributing to advance our current understanding on how calcareous nannoplankton are responding and adapting to ongoing environmental variability driven by climate change.
Syracosphaera anthos collected in the Western Mediterranean - Alboran Sea. High-resolution image obtained with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Photocredits: Jeremy Young (Nannotax).
Paying tribute to great pioneers: McIntyre and Okada
The INA Foundation is pleased to offer two Graduate Research Fellowships (one for $2500 USD and one for $1000 USD) honoring Prof. Dr. Hisatake Okada and Prof. Dr. Andrew McIntyre for their pioneering work in the field of extant/recent nannoplankton research and for their contributions to INA. The Okada-McIntyre Fellowship is intended for students actively seeking advanced degrees researching any aspect of modern/recent calcareous nannoplankton ecological dynamics, including seawater, sediment trap and seafloor sediment records, as well as from laboratory culture experiments dealing with any morphological, genetic, biogeochemical, and/or ecological aspects of coccolithophore species.
Hisatake Okada (left) was a paleontologist and a specialist in nannofossils from Yamagata University (Japan) who made outstanding contributions to the fields of paleontology, paleoceanography, and to the success of the Ocean Drilling Program, having produced what is probably still the best nannoplankton biogeographic study available nowadays. Andrew McIntyre (right) was a paleoclimatologist from Columbia University (USA) who pioneered in studies of nannoplankton using a scanning electron microscope, and greatly contributed to the first reconstruction of the North Atlantic over the last 18.000 years using nannoplankton data. Together, they played a major role in unraveling the environmental history and functioning of the ocean through developing nannoplankton research, and their work is still being referenced nearly 50 years later.
Submit your proposal until the 1st July 2023!
If you are a student working on this line of research, don't forget to submit your application for the Okada-McIntyre Graduate Research Fellowship. Deadline is July 1st 2023! Application guidelines can be downloaded at the official INA Foundation Website.