A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine SciencePast Recipient, Dr. Trevor Platt (1992) |
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| Last Modified: 2010-12-18
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Dr. Trevor Platt, the
fifteenth recipient of the A.G. HUNTSMAN
Award, is being reconized for his
extensive and clear-sighted contributions
to our understanding of the functioning
of the pelagic ecosystem, especially of
plankton in the open ocean. His research
and leadership have brought him to the
forefront of biological oceanography at
the present time. After graduate work in
plasma physics, his subsequent research
emphasized the physiological ecology of
plankton, the physics (especially the
optics) of the pelagic environment, and
the problems of quantifying primary
production in the ocean. His studies
progressed logically from investigations
of the spatial inhomogeneity of plankton
distribution in response to the power
spectrum of turbulence, through the
physiological responses of the growth of
cells in response to light and nutrients,
to dimensional analysis and the size
structure of pelagic food chains. At all
stages, his contributions have been
fundamental, and have become an important
part of the corpus of understanding of
oceanic ecology. In recent years, he has
joined his accumulated understanding of
physics and algal physiology to the new
possibilities offered by satellite remote
sensing of the ocean. Together with his
wife, Dr. Sathyendranath, he has
developed techniques for the critical
computation of the productivity of
oceanic plant cells on a global scale.
His research over the last 20 years has
enabled him to bring to this task a deep
understanding of algal physiology and of
the essential optical properties of
seawater. The analytical solutions and
algorithms to compute integrated plant
production through the water column,
advanced by Dr. Platt, place the critical
calculation of annual global production
by marine plants within reach for the
first time. 