The Luigi Provasoli Award is presented annually to the author(s) of the three, or fewer, outstanding papers published in the Journal of Phycology during the previous fiscal year.
History of Luigi Provasoli
The Luigi Provasoli Award was established in 1984 to honor the first editor of the Journal of Phycology as well as the 16th President of the Society, an individual who made many significant contributions to research on the algae. Luigi Provasoli was born in Milan, Italy, in 1908. Although born into a family involved in business activities (textile manufacture and marketing), he followed his own restless quest for a career in the natural sciences. His first direction was agriculture and included zoology and insect physiology. His early employment was working as an insect specialist for the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. He had a total of 17 publications by the time he earned his Ph. D. in 1939. It was his experience working on the nutrition of colorless flagellates in the lab of Andre Lwoff at the Pasteur Institute in Paris that oriented Provasoli toward his life-long research on the nutrition of algae and protozoa and their growth in culture. Provasoli received an appointment as Professor at the University of Camerino in 1942 but was caught in war-town Italy with his American-born wife Rose Desimini, an art student whom he had met in Paris.
After the end of the war, the Provasolis emigrated to New York City, where Luigi became an Instructor at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. By 1948 he had been promoted to head of his Department. It was during this period that Provasoli met Seymour Hutner of Brooklyn College and Caryl Haskins of the Haskins Laboratory in Manhattan. Over the next 25 years a most productive collaboration grew out of this like-minded trio of researchers, with many important discoveries on the nutrition, physiology, and cultivation of algae, protozoa, and invertebrates. Discoveries included the effect of antibiotics on the loss of chloroplasts in Euglena, the growth of Ulva in axenic culture and the effects of bacteria on its morphology, and the development of seawater media, both supplemented natural seawater and completely artificial formulations. But it was his having served as the founding editor of the Journal of Phycology which was Provasoli's real legacy to the Society. He served as editor from 1965 to 1974 and was instrumental in establishing the high standards for the Journal that persist. In 1970 Provasoli was installed as Adjunct Professor of Biology at Yale University, where his broad knowledge of the sciences and the arts influenced the graduate and undergraduate students who happened to encounter this charming Renaissance man. In 1982 Provasoli received the Gilbert Morgan Smith Award of the National Academy of Sciences. He reached retirement age in 1978, at which time he and Rose moved to the small village of Comerio in the Italian lake district. He passed away in October of 1992.
Past Recipients
- 2010 — Materna, A. C., Sturm, S., Kroth, P. G., and Lavaud, J. 2009. First induced plastid genome mutations in an alga with secondary plastids: psbA mutations in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bacillariophyceae) reveal consequences of the regulation of photosynthesis. J. Phycol. 45:838–46.
- 2009 — Park, M. G., Park, J. S., Kim, M. and Yih, W. 2008. Plastid dynamics during survival of Dinophysis caudata without its ciliate prey. J. Phycol. 44:1154–63.
- 2008 — Hildebrand, M., Frigeri, L. G. and Davis, A. K. 2007. Synchronized growth of Thalassiosira pseudonana (Bacillariophyceae) provides novel insights into cell-wall synthesis processes in relation to the cell cycle. J. Phycol. 43:730—40.
- 2007 — Johnson, M.D., Tengs, T., Oldach, D. and Stoecker, D.K. 2006. Sequestration, performance, and functional control of cryptophyte plastids in the ciliate Myrionecta rubra (Ciliophora). J. Phycol. 42:1235—46.
- 2006 — Patron, N. J. and Keeling, P. J. 2005. Common evolutionary origin of starch biosynthetic enzymes in green and red algae. J. Phycol. 41:1131–41.
- 2006 — Sarno, D., Kooistra, W. H. C. F, Medlin, L. K., Percopo, I., and Zingone, A. 2005. Diversity in the genus Skeletonema (Bacillariophyceae). II. An assessment of the taxonomy of S. costatum-like species with the description of four new species. J. Phycol. 41:151—76.
- 2006 — Parker, M. and Armbrust, E. V. 2005. Synergistic effects of light, temperature, and nitrogen source on transcription of genes for carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana (Bacillariophyceae). J. Phycol. 41:1142—53.
- 2004 — Higgins, M.J., Molino, P. and Wetherbee, R. 2003 The structure and nanomechanical properties of the adhesive mucilage that mediates diatom-substratum adhesion and motility. J. Phycol 39: 1181-1193.
- 2004 — Higgins, M.J., Sader, J.E., Mulvaney, P. and Wetherbee, R. 2003 Probing the surface of living diatoms with atomic force microscopy: the nanostructure and nanomechanical properties of the mucilage layer. J. Phycol 39: 722-734.
- 2004 — Okomoto, O. K. and Hastings, J. W. 2003. Novel dinoflagellate clock-related genes identified through microarray analysis. J. Phycol. 39: 519-526.
- 2004 — Schmid, A.-M. M. 2003. Endobacteria in the diatom Pinnularia (Bacillariophyceae). I. "Scattered ct-nucleoids" explained: DAPI_DNA complexes stem from exoplastidial bacteria boring into the chloroplasts. J. Phycol. 39: 122-138.
- 2004 — Schmid, A.-M. M. Endobacteria in the diatom Pinnularia (Bacillariophyceae). II. Host cell cycle-dependent translocation and transient chloroplast scars. J. Phycol. 39: 139-153.
- 2003 — Litaker, W. Vandersea, M.W. Kibler, S.R. Madden, V.J. Noga, E.J. and Tester, P.A. 2002. Life cycle of the heterotrophic dionflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida (Dinophyceae). J. Phycol. 38: 1261-1267.
- 2003 — Burkholder, J. and Glasgow, H. 2002. Life cycle and toxicity of Pfiesteria piscicida revisited J. Phycol. 38: 442-463.
- 2001 — Zirbel, M.J., F. Veron and M.I. Latz. 2000. The reversible effect of flow on the morphology of Ceratocorys horrida (Perindiniales, Dionophyta). J. Phycol. 36: 46-58.
- 2000 — Santelices, B., J.A. Correa, D. Aedo, V. Flores, M. Hormazabal and P. Sanchez. 1999. Convergent biological processes in coalescing Rhodophyta. J. Phycol. 35: 1127-1149.
- 2000 — Schaffelke B. 1999. Particulate organic matter as an alternative nutrient source for tropical Sargassum species (Fucales, Phaeophyceae). J. Phycol. 35: 1158-1161.
- 1999 — Kobl, I., D.L. Kirk and R. Schmitt. 1998. Quantitative PCR data falsify the chromosomal endoreduplication hypothesis for Volvox carteri (Volvocales, Chlorophyta). J. Phycol. 34: 981-988.
- 1998 — Lavau, S., G.W. Saunders and R. Wetherbee. 1997. A phylogenetic analysis of the Synurophyceae using molecular data and scale case morphology. J. Phycol. 33: 135-151.
- 1997 — Goff, L.J., D.A. Moon, P. Nyvall, B. Stache, K. Mangin, and G. Zuccarello. 1996. The evolution of parasitism in the red algae: molecular comparisons of adelphoparasites and their hosts. J. Phycol. 32: 297-312.
- 1997 — Richardson, T.L., A.M. Ciotti, J.J. Cullen and T.A. Villareal. 1996. Physiological and optical properties of Rhizosolenia formosa (Bacillariophyceae) in the context of open-ocean vertical migration. J. Phycol. 32:741-757.
- 1996 — LaRoche, J. H. Murray, M. Orellana and J. Newton. 1995. Flavodoxin expression as an indicator of iron limitation in marine diatoms. J. Phycol. 31:520-530.
- 1994 — Max Bothwell, Darren Sherbot, Andre C. Roberge and Ralph J. Daley. 1993. Influence of natural ultraviolet radiation on lotic perphytic diatom community growth, biomass accrual, and species composition: short-term versus long-term effects. J. Phycol. 29-24-35.
- 1993 — Christine A. Maggs, Susan E. Douglas and Carolyn J. Bird. 1992. A molecular and morphological analysis of the Grymnogongrus devoniensis (Rhodophyta) complex in the North Atlantic. J. Phycol. 28:214-232
- 1992 — Deneb Karentz, James E. Cleaver and David L. Mitchell. 1991. Cell survival characteristics and molecular responses of Antarctic phytoplankton to ultraviolet-B radiation. J. Phycol. 27:326-341.
- 1991 — Stephen C. Maberly. 1990. Exogenous sources of inorganic carbon for photosynthesis by marine macroalgae. J. Phycol. 26:439-449.
- 1989 — S. R. Fain, L.D. Druehl and D.L. Baillie. 1988. Repeat and single copy sequences are differentially conserved in the evolution of kelp chloroplast DNA. J. Phycol. 24:292-302.
- 1989 — Lynda J. Goff and Annette W. Coleman. 1988. The use of plastid DNA restriction endonuclease patterns in delineating red algal species and populations. J. Phycol. 24:357-368.
- 1988 — A. Michelle Wood, Russell Lande and Greta A. Fryxell. 1987. Quantitative genetic analysis of morphological variation in an Antarctic diatom grown at two light intensities. J. Phycol. 23:42-54.
- 1986 — Lynda J. Goff and Annette W. Coleman. 1985. The role of secondary pit connections in red algal parasitism. J. Phycol. 21:483-508.