Pikitch Receives 2024 Hugo and Anita Freudenthal Research Award
Ellen Pikitch, Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, has received the 2024 Hugo and Anita Freudenthal Research Award for her significant contributions to furthering scientists’ understanding of the marine environment.
Presented by the New York State Marine Education Association (NYSMEA), the award is given to standout marine scientists or educators. Pikitch is the third recipient of the Hugo and Anita Freudenthal Research Award. It was presented to her via a NYSMEA zoom event on April 20.
“I am honored to receive the Freudenthal Award, named after two research pioneers who made important scientific contributions spanning ocean waters to space, and from local to global regions of the Earth,” said Pikitch. “I am also so pleased to have this award bestowed upon me by an organization in my home state, whose founders played a pivotal role in launching my career.”
In addition to her faculty position at SoMAS, Pikitch is Executive Director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, an academically based institute with a mission to advance ocean conservation through science, outreach and action. It has been based at Stony Brook University and led by Pikitch since she began her Stony Brook tenure in 2008.
Pikitch has been involved in marine research activities both nationally and internationally. Much of her research focuses on ocean conservation science, with emphasis on marine protected areas (MPAs), fish conservation and fisheries sustainability, ecosystem-based fishery management, and endangered fishes.
Pikitch has been the recipient of a number of global, regional and national awards and distinctions, including the Hope Spot Champion Award, the Oscar E. Sette Award, the Ocean Hero Award, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), The Explorers Club, and the Pew Marine Fellows program. She also serves on the advisory boards of several international organizations.
“It is especially appropriate that Dr. Pikitch be awarded the Hugo and Anita Freudenthal Research Award, as both she and the Freudenthals worked both globally and locally,” said Lou Siegel, director of NYSMEA. “The New York State Marine Education Association appreciates Ellen’s commitment to explaining her research to local educators and to the general public through presentations, including one for NYSMEA.”
Pikitch was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and Siegel was her marine biology teacher at John Dewey High School in Coney Island.
The award is named after two pioneering marine science researcher and educators in New York State. Hugo Freudenthal was the first to recognize the symbiotic relationship between algae and corals in the 1950s and developed the first space toilet for NASA. Anita Freudenthal was the first, and only, marine biologist for Nassau County decades ago.