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David Karl, left, and Edward DeLong outside the Daniel K. Inouye C-MORE Hale laboratory. (Photo by Anthony Consillio)

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded David Karl and Edward DeLong, both UH Mānoa professors in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, individual grants totaling $4.2 million to support their marine research. These awards are part of the Moore Foundation’s national Marine Microbiology Initiative that awarded 16 scientists from 14 different institutions a total of up to $35 million over five years to pursue pioneering research in the field of marine microbial ecology.

The funding will enable researchers to explore how the trillions upon trillions of microscopic organisms at the base of the ocean’s food webs interact with each other and their environment. It will help scientists understand how the ocean’s most abundant yet smallest organisms affect the movement of nutrients in our oceans.

“These funds will support a team of students, post docs and technicians to continue our ongoing efforts to understand the complex nature of life in the ocean,” said Karl. “Our research will be conducted at sea, where the marine microbes live. We can’t wait to get started!”

The Marine Microbiology Initiative investigators were selected from a strong pool of applicants from around the world through an open competition. Awardees demonstrated creativity, innovation and potential to make major, new breakthroughs.

“We’re very excited and extremely grateful to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,” said DeLong. “These awards will allow us to undertake new high risk, high gain research and technology programs, that would be difficult to implement using more traditional funding sources.”

DeLong is the first scientist to be hired by the university under the auspices of the UH Innovation Initiative.

“These prestigious awards will give our trailblazing scientists the resources to explore new frontiers and make new discoveries that will ultimately benefit us all,” said UH Mānoa Chancellor Tom Apple.

For more, read the UH Mānoa news release.

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