Ocean plankton produce half of the oxygen on earth. Scientists are racing to understand how a rapidly warming planet is affecting these critical oxygen-creators.
Breakthrough Leader: Jay Pinckney
Posted on: May 11, 2021; Updated on: May 11, 2021
Growing up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Jay Pinckney spent a lot of time in the outdoors, hunting and fishing with his father. By the time he was in the eighth grade he knew he wanted to be a marine biologist, part of the generation fascinated by Jacques Cousteau’s undersea adventures.
But his ties to the sea go back even further; he is the 13
th generation of Pinckneys to grow up in South Carolina. The first Pinckney to settle in the Carolinas was a pirate, arriving in 1692.
Pinckney, a biological sciences professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and