HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

A CELEBRATION OF HARBOR BRANCH'S 35TH ANNIVERSARY TO BEGIN 2006 OCEAN SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES

This year, Harbor Branch celebrates its 35th anniversary. To highlight that milestone, and to kick off the annual Ocean Science Lecture Series, Harbor Branch President and CEO Shirley Pomponi will be giving a presentation titled "Harbor Branch Turns 35: Looking Back, Looking Ahead," on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Admission is free. Subsequent events in the series will be held each Wednesday through March 29 (see calendar below).

Pomponi's historical topics will include the numerous discoveries made using the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles--which have now logged more than 8,000 dives--including potential cancer cures and greater understanding of how the oceans and the plants and animals that live within them function. Pomponi will also discuss important advances in aquaculture, successful efforts to conserve coral reef resources, and the 400 summer interns and 200 postdoctoral fellows who have now been trained at Harbor Branch. Many of these students have gone on to make major contributions to ocean science.

In a look ahead to the coming year and beyond, Pomponi will discuss efforts underway to initiate new interdisciplinary programs in such research areas as the Indian River Lagoon, Florida's deep coral reefs, toxic algal blooms in Florida's coastal waters, and aquaculture of species important in biomedicine. She will also cover ongoing expansions, chiefly the new Florida Atlantic University-Harbor Branch Marine Science Center now under construction, which will provide laboratories for Harbor Branch and FAU faculty and students, and a new Harbor Branch Visitor Center.

The Pomponi talk will be one of several anniversary events throughout the year commemorating Harbor Branch's rich history and promising future.

Since 1984, Dr. Shirley Pomponi has been a leader in Harbor Branch's global search for marine organisms that produce chemicals with pharmaceutical potential. She has logged more than 200 research submersible dives and led numerous expeditions to such locales as the Galapagos Islands, Australia, the Seychelles, the Canary Islands and Lake Baikal in Russia. She was also co-discover of several of Harbor Branch's patented pharmaceutical products, including discodermolide, a chemical produced by a deep-sea sponge that has shown great promise in fighting certain cancers. In 2004, she became Harbor Branch's president and CEO.

Pomponi received her master's and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami. She has held numerous positions advising on federal and state ocean policies, including recent appointments to the Florida Oceans and Coastal Resources Council and the federal Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel. She chairs the National Research Council's Ocean Studies Board, and serves on the board of governors of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), the board of directors of BIOFlorida, the board of trustees of Midwest Research Institute, the Women Divers Hall of Fame, and the U.S. Committee for the Census of Marine Life.

Pomponi's talk will be held in the auditorium of the Johnson Education Center on the Harbor Branch Campus, 5600 US 1 North, Ft. Pierce, Fla. at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11. High-res photos and video of Pomponi, Harbor Branch submersibles, and research relevant to the talk are available to the media upon request. Please direct press inquiries, including interview and photo requests, to Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu. General questions about the series should be directed to the Marine Education Office at 772-465-2400 ext. 506 or education@hboi.edu. All talks in the Ocean Science Lecture Series are free to the public and followed by a meet-the-speaker reception.

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.