Overview Sponsors Honorary Congressional Committee Register

Member of Congress:
The Honorable Lois Capps
U.S. House of Representatives
Co-Chair, National Marine Sanctuary Caucus
Congresswoman Lois Capps was sworn in as a Freshman Member of the 105th Congress on March 17, 1998, succeeding her late husband, Congressman Walter Capps. She was the Representative of California’s 22nd District from 1998 to 2002. Since January 2003, Capps has served as the Representative of the 23rd District. Her district includes portions of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. Lois Capps is committed to helping people improve their daily lives through better schools, quality health care, and a cleaner environment. Capps is a respected leader in Congress on issues of public health, passing legislation to address the national nursing shortage, detect and prevent domestic violence against women, curb underage drinking, improve mental health services, provide emergency defibrillators to local communities, bring CPR instruction to schools, and provide immediate Medicare coverage to patients suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. After graduating with honors from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, she worked as a nursing instructor in Portland, Oregon. Capps earned a Master of Arts degree in Religion from Yale University while working as Head Nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital. In addition, she earned a Master of Arts degree in Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara and received honorary doctorates from Pacific Lutheran University and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.
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Moderator:
Paul Sandifer, PhD
Chief Scientist, Coastal Ecology
NOAA National Ocean Service
Paul A. Sandifer, PhD is Senior Scientist for Coastal Ecology for NOAA's National Ocean Service, with primary responsibility for the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Initiative, operating out of Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, SC. He spent 31 years with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, including nearly six years as agency director. He has spent his career involved with marine and natural resource policy and management and mission-oriented research in aquaculture and coastal marine science. The author of over 140 publications, he is a faculty member at the College of Charleston and associate/adjunct graduate faculty at the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina. He is a member of the US National Committee for the Census of Marine Life, Advisory Board for the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, and the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Science, Research, and Medicine and Co-Chairs the Interagency Working Group on Harmful Algal Blooms, Hypoxia, and Human Health. His previous service includes membership on the U. S. Commission on Ocean Policy. Dr. Sandifer received his BS in biology from the College of Charleston and Ph.D. in Marine Science from UVA.

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Panelists:
Guy T. Carter, PhD
Assistant Vice President, Chemical Technologies
Chemical & Screening Sciences, Wyeth Research
Dr. Guy T. Carter is Assistant Vice President of Chemical Technologies, in the Chemical Sciences Department at Wyeth Research. In this role he has responsibility for several functions in Drug Discovery at Wyeth. He leads the Natural Products Discovery effort, which includes all aspects of this program from the acquisition of biodiversity for screening, microbiology and fermentation through chemical isolation and genetic engineering. Dr. Carter is also responsible for analytical chemistry support functions at all four Wyeth Discovery Research sites. The latter provides high-level expertise in spectroscopy, separation sciences and chiral technologies for the advancement of small molecule therapeutic candidates into pharmaceutical development. Dr. Carter received a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Lehigh University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with the late Professor Kenneth Rinehart at the University of Illinois.
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Joshua Rosenthal, PhD
Deputy Director of the Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
Joshua Rosenthal is Deputy Director of the Division of International Training and Research of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of Health. He is an ecologist with a longstanding interest in the integration of environment, public health and international development. Before coming to the NIH, Dr. Rosenthal received his Ph.D. in Plant Ecology and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Environmental Science Policy and Management, both at the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently accepted a AAAS Science and Diplomacy Fellowship that brought him to the Fogarty Center. He currently directs the health and environment grants portfolio of FIC, including three interagency research and capacity-building programs. The International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups combine biodiversity-based molecular discovery, bioinventory, intellectual property management and research capacity building in 15 countries around the world. The Ecology of Infectious Diseases program integrates field biology and quantitative analysis of disease dynamics with study of population, environmental change and health interventions to yield predictive tools to support disease control. The International Training in Environmental and Occupational Health program trains scientists in low and middle-income countries and supports research training projects to enhance local public health research capacity and a policy relevant knowledge base. Dr. Rosenthal is currently leading an effort to develop a Trans NIH Research Agenda on the Health Effects of Global Climate Change.

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David W. Rowley, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences
University of Rhode Island
Dr. David Rowley is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Rowley received a B.S. degree in Polymer Science from the Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego. Dr. Rowley’s research is focused on the discovery of novel antibiotics produced by marine microorganisms. Recent efforts have included the exploration of new microbial resources in deep ocean environments and the chemical ecology of bacteria-bacteria interactions. His research has been funded by grants from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, and Rhode Island Science & Technology Advisory Council.

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Amy Wright, PhD
Director, Division of Biomedical Marine Research
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Dr. Wright is currently a Research Professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University. She has conducted research in the field of natural products chemistry for the past twenty-five years. Her current research program focuses on the discovery of novel bioactive marine natural products obtained from marine plants, invertebrates and microorganisms associated with marine invertebrates using bioassay-guided purification. The structures of new compounds are determined through spectroscopic means with an emphasis on the use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Organisms of special interest are those that live in deep water habitats and their microbial associates. She is also a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Marine Biomedical and Environmental Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has over seventy publications in the field of marine natural products and is an inventor on thirty US patents. She was recently named the 2008-2009 FAU Researcher of the Year at Professor level. Dr. Wright earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from California State University Dominguez Hills and a Masters of Science and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California at Riverside.

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