Dr. Cindy Lee and two of her Ph.D. students, Carolina Cisternas (left) and Tiantian Tang (right)

Dr. Cindy Lee and two of her Ph.D. students, Carolina Cisternas (left) and Tiantian Tang (right)

Dr. Cindy Lee of the SoMAS faculty is one of the world’s most distinguished marine chemists. Recently, Cindy was honored by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), one of the world’s leading professional organizations for research and education in the aquatic sciences, as she received the Society’s prestigious G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award. Hutchinson was an internationally renown zoologist who is generally recognized as the father of modern limnology, the study of freshwater systems.

The G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award has been presented annually since 1982 to recognize excellence in any aspect of limnology or oceanography. The award is intended to symbolize the quality and innovations toward which ASLO strives and to remind its members of these goals. In lending his name to the award, Hutchinson asked that recipients be scientists who had made considerable contributions to knowledge and whose future work promised a continuing legacy of scientific excellence.

Upon being notified of her award, Dr. Lee commented, “It’s always a thrill to be recognized by one’s colleagues. In my case, I have many, many collaborators and students to share this honor with.”

Dr. Lee’s research involves the distribution and behavior of biogenic organic compounds in the marine environment, and the role of these compounds in the global carbon cycle. She accepted her award at a special ceremony held at ASLO’s Aquatic Sciences Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in February, 2011.