Related by Marriage: Summer School

Mr. Irene spent the summer of 1981 enrolled in the Physiology Course offered by the Marine Biological Laboratories ("MBL") in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Since its founding exactly 125 years ago, the MBL has offered summer courses for advanced biology students. It champions observation of the physiology and behavior of the local sea creatures—such as the giant squid, the ancient horseshoe crab, and surf clams—to understand and probe basic biological processes.

Nobel laureates were both students and instructors in the MBL summer courses. James Watson, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, was an instructor in 1954. Two future Nobel laureates in cell and molecular biology, Tim Hunt and Sidney Altman, were instructors the year Mr. Irene was a student. 

Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Summer 1981. A skiff returns to the lab after a collection trip in the Great Harbor. The main laboratory building is on the right. A more recent photo shows how much development has built up around the main complex.

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Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Summer 1981. Mr. Irene's Physiology Class lines up for a sample collection trip of their own.