Join The Explorers Club on Monday, January 29th to learn about a groundbreaking project hoping to shed light on the past, present, and future of our oceans’ biodiversity.
The Ocean Genome Atlas Project (OGAP) aims to collect, classify, sequence and map the genomic information of organisms representing at least 80% of the extant marine species worldwide. Deploying a fleet of advanced but cost-effective research vessels (primarily mid- sized sailing vessels) to transect our oceans over the coming decades, OGAP aims to provide access to all of our Blue Planet to hundreds of scientists. The resulting Ocean Genome Atlas will be a global 4D+ genomic atlas of the world’s oceans at single-cell resolution, providing critical information for planetary health, evolutionary and fundamental biology as well as biomedicines of the future. The US National Academy of Sciences has selected OGAP as an Ocean Shot Project as part of the UN Decade of the Oceans.
Streaming live here on explorers.org, our YouTube Channel, and our Facebook Live — Monday, January 29th at 7:00 pm ET.
RESERVATIONS
This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters.
In-person tickets are $15 for Members, and $30 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Dr. Leonid Moroz
Dr. Moroz is a distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, Genetics, Biology and Chemistry at the University of Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in physiology and evolutional and developmental biology under the tutelage of Dr. D.A. Sakharov at the Institute of Developmental Biology, Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. His postdoctoral research was done with Dr. William Winlow at the University of Leeds in the UK and with Dr. Rhanor Gillette at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Dr. Moroz was an HHMI International Scholar and, in 1998, was recruited to the University of Florida. Dr. Moroz lead the Ship Seq team that performed the first genomic sequencing at sea in 2014.
Peter Molnar
Peter has captained the OGAP volunteer vessel SAM over 9,000 nautical miles of genetic sampling voyages across the North Pacific since 2017. In close partnership with Dr. Moroz, he founded the OGAP project in 2021 drawing on years of environmental work, expedition planning and international project management. A ranked competitive sailor in high school and college, Peter quickly turned towards remote kayak and small boat expeditions as an instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School and also started supporting environmental projects. He trained as a pollution patrol skipper for SF Baykeeper in 1995, served on and chaired the board from 2011 to 2020 and is currently chair of the True Blue Leadership Circle. He has skippered a support vessel for Point Blue’s Farallon Patrol and currently serves on the board of Adventure Scientists.
