This seminar — featuring Emmy Award-winning producer of PBS’s Lost LA series Micaela Rodgers and USC Dornsife Professor Donal Manahan — formally opens an exhibit detailing the history, growth and evolution of the Marine Environmental Biology (MEB) group at USC Dornsife through posters, photos and memorabilia spanning the program’s 125 years.

Background

In 1901, USC President George Finley Bovard initiated the study of aquatic biology at the university under the academic leadership of Professor Albert Ulrey, who directed USC’s first Marine Laboratory located on Venice Pier. That pioneering “first” was later followed in the 1930s by the dramatic expansion of the study of environmental science, sponsored by Captain George Allan Hancock and undertaken by professors such as Irene McCulloch. 

In the 1950s, future USC President James Zumberge became a renowned Antarctic explorer, with a cape and coastline on that continent named in his honor. (Note: Manahan shares this naming honor, with an Antarctic mountain peak bearing his name in recognition of his work on the continent.)

Current faculty and students continue to build on USC’s century-long tradition of studying marine and environmental biology, resulting in major discoveries revealing the critical importance of the world’s oceans for sustaining human and planetary health.

About the Exhibit

After the seminar presentation, the set of display posters in the Torrey Webb Room will be available for viewing, highlighting major events during the MEB program’s 125-year history.

Rare Opportunity: Hancock Museum

In addition to the exhibit and seminar, the Hancock Museum — designated a Los Angeles City Cultural Monument and adjacent to the Torrey Webb Room — will be open for public viewing. The museum is normally closed to the public.