PROVIDENCE – Brown University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, last week announced plans to increase their collaboration after receiving a donation of more than $2 million from Charles and Phyllis Rosenthal.
The Ivy League university said an MBL scientist will oversee the partnership and four of the laboratory’s scientists will hold joint faculty appointments at Brown. They will teach advanced-level classes, advise graduate students and spearhead joint research projects.
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The school and MBL, an international research center on Cape Cod, first formed a partnership in 2003. They offer a joint Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Science, which currently enrolls 18 students.
“I am delighted to expand our academic relationship with the Marine Biological Laboratory,” said Brown President Ruth J. Simmons. “As a result of the generous endowment from the Rosenthal family, Brown students will gain regular access to a wider range of scientists in microbiology, biomedicine and ecology, and Brown faculty will have more opportunities to collaborate with the MBL’s scientists on groundbreaking research projects.”
The expanded partnership will focus on three key scientific themes: ecosystems, environmental health and microbiomes, or populations of microbes that play key roles in the human body and the environment. MBL ecologist Christopher Neill will oversee the program.
“Together scientists at Brown and MBL have the vision, expertise and analytical tools to bridge boundaries of disciplines to create a research and training environment in molecular biology, microbiology and ecology that is unsurpassed in the world,” Neill said. “In addition to fostering basic research, we aim to apply research to solving critical problems of human health and the environment.”
Charles Rosenthal is a Brown trustee emeritus and an MBL trustee.
Additional information is available at mbl.edu.
