December 9, 2014 — The Marine Biological Laboratory will have a new leader at the helm by the beginning of the new year, the research lab announced in a statement Monday.
Huntington Willard, 61, was identified as the new president and director of the nonprofit institution and University of Chicago affiliate. Willard, currently the Arts & Sciences Professor of Biology and Genome Sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, will start Jan. 1.
“He’s excited to come to the MBL and the Cape,” interim President and Director Arthur Sussman said. “One of his conditions was he wanted to start quickly.” Sussman said Willard, who is new to the Cape and the MBL, will be able to bring a fresh eye to the laboratory and tackle such obstacles as declining federal funding and how best to collaborate with affiliate University of Chicago, Sussman said.
Willard said the MBL's work and vision, if better than competitors', would attract money. “The people who articulate better will have the advantage in looking for funding,” he said. He also sees the University of Chicago's resources, with the MBL's small and nimble operation, as a collaboration that will benefit both parties.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times