Sallie W. Chisholm facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sallie Watson Chisholm
Born	1947 (age 77–78) Marquette, Michigan, U.S.
Alma mater	Skidmore College University at Albany, SUNY
Known for	Study of phytoplankton, especially Prochlorococcus
Awards	National Medal of Science Alexander Agassiz Medal (2010) Crafoord Prize (2019)
Scientific career
Fields	Marine biology
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sallie Watson "Penny" Chisholm, born in 1947, is an American scientist who studies the ocean. She works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is an expert on tiny living things in the ocean, called microbes. Her main research is about a very tiny ocean plant called Prochlorococcus. She discovered this plant in the 1980s with her team. It's one of the most common living things in the ocean! She even gave a TED talk about how important this tiny creature is. It's called "The tiny creature that secretly powers the planet".

Early Life and Learning

Penny Chisholm was born in Marquette, Michigan, in the United States. She finished high school there in 1965. She then went to Skidmore College for her undergraduate studies. Later, she earned her PhD degree from University at Albany, SUNY in 1974. After getting her PhD, she worked as a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1974 to 1976.

Her Work as a Scientist

Chisholm joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1976. She has also been a visiting scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 1978. Her research has always focused on how tiny ocean plants, called phytoplankton, live and grow.

Discovering Tiny Ocean Plants

Early in her career, Chisholm studied how these tiny plants take in nutrients. She also looked at how this affects their daily life cycle. This led her to use a special tool called flow cytometry. This tool can measure the features of individual cells.

Using flow cytometry on ocean samples helped Chisholm and her team make an important discovery. They found that very small plankton, especially Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus, do much more for ocean life than people thought. Before this, scientists mainly focused on larger plants called diatoms. They believed diatoms were the most important phytoplankton.

Chisholm's work showed that these tiny algae cycle a huge amount of carbon. This means they play a big role in how carbon moves through the Earth's systems. They might also be very important for the global nitrogen cycle.

Protecting the Ocean

In recent years, Chisholm has spoken out against a method called iron fertilization. Some people suggest using this method to try and fix climate change. However, Chisholm believes it is not a good solution. She thinks it could harm the ocean's natural balance.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Penny Chisholm has received many awards for her important work.

• Since 1992, she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• She became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2003.
• In January 2010, she received the Alexander Agassiz Medal. This award was for her groundbreaking studies of the main plants in the sea. It also recognized how she helped us understand the global ocean in a new way.
• She was given the Ruth Patrick Award in 2012. This award came from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
• On February 1, 2013, President Barack Obama gave her the National Medal of Science. This is one of the highest honors for scientists in the U.S.
• In 2013, she won the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology. She received it for being a very productive and active researcher in marine biology and ecology.
• Harvard University awarded her a Doctor of Science degree on May 24, 2018.
• In 2019, she received the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences. This prize is for her discovery and studies of Prochlorococcus. This tiny organism is the most common plant that makes its own food on Earth. The Crafoord Prize is considered similar to the Nobel Prize for fields not covered by the Nobel categories.

See also

In Spanish: Sallie W. Chisholm para niños

• Prochlorococcus
• Synechococcus
• Carbon cycle
• Global warming