Professor Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm has been awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor for scientists and engineers. President Barack Obama will present the medal to Chisholm, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Biology, in a ceremony at the White House. Chisholm is the 48th MIT scientist to be so recognized since the medal was established in 1959. She is a distinguished biological oceanographer whose studies of the dominant photosynthetic organisms in the sea have revolutionized our understanding of life in the world’s oceans. Read a news release. View a short video about Sallie (Penny) Chisholm’s work.