Mystic -- Mystic Aquarium has announced that it has created a Scientist-in-Residence program to bolster its research efforts and named its first four scientists.

The aquarium said the program is modeled after National Geographic’s “Explorers-in-Residence” and Fellows Program. Titanic discoverer Bob Ballard of Lyme, who formerly headed the aquarium’s Institute for Exploration, is one of National Geographic's explorers in residence. National Geographic sponsored many of his expeditions while he was at the aquarium and continues to work closely with the aquarium.

In announcing the program, Mystic Aquarium said that as part of its “One Ocean, One Mission” strategic plan, “it continues to focus on its mission to inspire people to care for and protect the ocean planet. The resolute plan calls for the implementation of a Scientists-in-Residence program that will expand and bolster research, conservation, coastal resiliency and educational programs that are at the very core of the mission.”

“Mystic Aquarium, our Research Advisory Council and our entire staff are resolute in our commitment to have a global impact on our environment,” said aquarium president and CEO Stephen Coan. “We are proud to have an esteemed group of scientists who share the same vision and passion.”

Among the four scientists is Jason Mancini, a senior researcher at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, who also teaches at the University of Connecticut and Connecticut College. His current research projects focus on Indian histories after 1700 and involve Indian social networks, Indian mariners, urban Indian communities, race and ethnicity in New England, cultural landscapes and oral histories. The aquarium said Mancini has been instrumental in carrying out the educational and cultural exchange program between it, the Mashantuckets and the native people of Point Lay, Alaska, where aquarium scientists study wild beluga whales.

The other scientists include Greg Marshall, a research associate for National Geographic, who is an inventor, marine biologist, conservationist, and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who invented the National Geographic Crittercam, a small, lightweight camera placed in habitats to capture never-before-seen footage of the lives of wild animals. He has worked with the aquarium using Crittercam with beluga whales and snapping turtles.

Vincent Pieribone is a professor of cellular and molecular physiology and neurobiology and a fellow at the John B. Pierce Laboratory. According to the aquarium, Pieribone’s laboratory has engineered miniature imaging systems that can be head-mounted on mammals in order to allow for mobile recording of neuronal activity, which will help improve scientists’ understanding of the neuronal networks that encode information in the central nervous system.

David Gruber is affiliated with Baruch College, City University of New York and the John B. Pierce Laboratory. His research uses “remote operated vehicles and extended-range SCUBA to examine marine natural products, fluorescent proteins and bioluminescence on coral reefs” and is currently co-producing a 3D IMAX film on bioluminescence.