Dr. William Sunda will be awarded the elite honor of fellow in the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. The award will be presented in June at the Goldschmidt Conference in Sacramento, Calif., the annual meeting hosted jointly by both societies. The award honors outstanding scientists who have, over some years, made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry. Dr. Sunda is receiving the award for his pioneering research in trace metal chemistry and biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and the importance of trace metals in regulating the productivity and species diversity of marine phytoplankton. His research has had important applications to the understanding and modeling of ocean productivity and carbon cycling and to their impacts on global fishery production and climate change. Dr. Sunda graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution joint program in oceanography in 1975 and has worked as a research scientist at NOAA’s Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in Beaufort, N.C. for 39 years. He is also currently a fellow in the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For more information, contact Bernie.Gottholm@noaa.gov.