Scripps Receives $1 Million Grant from W.M. Keck Foundation

Gift will fund research to create the world's first multi-resolution, 3-D, underwater video microscope

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has received a $1 million gift from the W.M. Keck Foundation. With this support, Scripps research oceanographer Jules Jaffe and Scripps professor of biological oceanography Peter Franks, and UC San Diego professor of computer science and engineering David Kriegman, will build the world’s first multi-resolution, 3-D, in situ, underwater video microscope for looking at tiny marine nanoplankton. 

Approximately one third of the oxygen we breathe is generated through the photosynthesis of marine organisms discovered in only the last 30 years. These organisms form the base of the marine food web and are important in regulating the planet’s climate; yet almost everything scientists know about them comes from bulk samples or laboratory experiments. Their small size presents challenges that have made direct observation in the ocean using existing technology difficult, if not impossible.

The microscope will help discriminate between different kinds of plankton that are important in global carbon cycling. Image analysis of data from the high-resolution microscope will allow scientists to see, for the first time, the most abundant organisms on the planet in situ and how they interact with each other.

"I am enthralled with inventing observational technology that permits me to make discoveries about the natural world," said Jaffe. "This device will be so far beyond anything that anyone has right now, that I must imagine that a host of such discoveries lie just around the corner."

See related U-T San Diego article "Scripps gets $1 million for ocean microscope"

About the W. M. Keck Foundation

Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation's grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science, and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of civic and community services with a special emphasis on children. For more information, visit www.wmkeck.org.