HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

HARBOR BRANCH TO CELEBRATE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF INTERN PROGRAM AND 100TH BIRTHDAY OF FAMED INVENTOR EDWIN LINK

FT. PIERCE -- July 26, 2004 -- On Thursday, Harbor Branch will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its highly successful internship program. The program has been supported throughout its history by funding from the Link Foundation, which also supports programs at Indian River Community College, the Smithsonian Field Station at Ft. Pierce, and nearby universities. The day's events will also honor the 100th birthday of world-renowned inventor Edwin Link (1904-1981) with a historic display of photographs, magazine articles, and other memorabilia. Journalists are welcome to attend both an afternoon reception and presentations by this year's interns. For more details see below.

Edwin Link is most famous for his invention of the world's first flight simulator, but at Harbor Branch he is perhaps most fondly remembered as the designer of the institution's two Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles. It was the success of the Link Corporation, formed 75 years ago to produce flight simulators, that enabled him to create the Link Foundation in 1953 with his wife Marion. Their goal was to encourage leadership and excellence in ocean engineering and other fields. The Foundation is based in Mr. Link's hometown of Binghamton, New York, and has distributed over $10 million in grants and fellowships since its inception.

After spending a lifetime as a pilot and inventor of aeronautical equipment, Mr. Link had by the 1950s turned much of his attention to the ocean. He became heavily involved in development of equipment that enabled many historical achievements such as construction of the world's first civilian submersible with diver lockout capability. Named Deep Diver, the vessel is now on display behind Harbor Branch's Johnson Education Center. He also led numerous underwater archaeology projects including the discovery of the anchor from Columbus' Santa Maria, and excavation of the ancient submerged pirate city of Port Royal in Jamaica.

Edwin Link purchased land on the south side of the Harbor Branch channel in 1969 to use as a base for his underwater archaeological and marine engineering endeavors. Later, he invited Harbor Branch founder J. Seward Johnson to move to the site and join forces with him there to pursue their mutual ocean interests.

The Harbor Branch Foundation, later renamed the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, distributed its first payroll in November 1971. Once up and running, the institution provided the perfect place by 1974 to launch the internship program that for years Mr. Link had longed to create so that he could offer young student s the practical educational opportunities he himself ad lacked.

"Ed always believed in helping young people with their education because he didn't have the opportunity to go to school as long as he wanted, and schools did not offer technical hands-on training in his fields of interest," says Mr. Link's sister, Marilyn Link, who is an Emeritus Director of Harbor Branch, "He would have been an excellent intern."

To date 382 interns from around the country and the world have received training through the Harbor Branch Intern Program that in many cases has helped them to launch successful careers in ocean science and engineering. "For 30 years, our summer intern program has provided college and university students an opportunity to get valuable hands-on experience at Harbor Branch, thanks primarily to the support of the Link Foundation," says Dr. Dennis Hanisak, director of Harbor Branch's Marine Education Division.

Interns spend 10 weeks at Harbor Branch and during that time they design and execute their own complete research projects. This year there are a total of 17 graduate and undergraduate interns working on projects in aquaculture, drug discovery, engineering, and marine mammal and general marine science research. Each of these students will complete their internship with a project presentation on Thursday.

Most of Harbor Branch's internships are still funded by the Link Foundation, but other organizations have also stepped forward over the last several years to augment the program. This year, the Gertrude E. Skelly Charitable Foundation funded four interns, and the Roman Saliwanchik Memorial fund and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration each funded one intern.

Beyond the Harbor Branch Intern Program, the Link Foundation has made major contributions to other Treasure Coast institutions as well. Since 1998, 26 graduate students have received a total of nearly $100,000 in fellowships for work at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Ft. Pierce. The Link Foundation has also had a significant impact on Indian River Community College by providing Distinguished Scholar Awards to over 30 IRCC students since 1999, totaling over $85,000. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to partner with the Link Foundation to recognize students for their past accomplishments and to help them achieve their dreams for the future," says Dr. Edwin Massey, IRCC's president.

Nearby universities have also benefited from the Link Foundation's generosity. Since 1992, the Foundation has provided over $1.5 million in support for 67 graduate fellowships administered by the University of Central Florida. At Florida Tech in Melbourne, among other grants from the Foundation,14 awardees in the Link Scholars Program have received a total of $350,000 in funding for fellowships in ocean engineering and for library scholars working with the Edwin A. Link special collection maintained by Florida Tech.

The intern program reception and 100th birthday celebration will be held July 29 at 4:00 p.m. in the Johnson Education Center on Harbor Branch's main campus following a brief presentation on the program at 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium. The reception will include a display of items related to Edwin Link's life including photographs, magazine articles, and memorabilia such as a letter from Walter Cronkite, a certificate from President Nixon, and a piece of the original cloth from the Wright Flyer, presented to Mr. Link by a colleague of Orville Wright. Interns will give presentations on their summer projects in the auditorium throughout the day beginning at 9:00 a.m.

For more information, please contact Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390, or schrope@hboi.edu. Photos of memorabilia items and Edwin Link are available, as is historical b-roll. Marilyn Link, Skelly Foundation Trustee Erik Joh, former interns, and others will all be available for interviews.

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.