A top National Geographic explorer will visit Bermuda later this month. Dr. Sylvia Earle, a world-renowned scientist and National Geographic's Explorer-in-Residence, joins members of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) for the groundbreaking ceremony of its new laboratory building on June 25. The new building will house state-of-the-art research and education facilities for scientists and students from around the globe.

Following the ceremony, Dr. Earle will speak at a special donor lecture that will begin the BBSR's ExxonMobil centennial lecture series that will continue throughout the fall.

Other centennial celebration events include an afternoon research cruise and plankton tow aboard the R/V Henry Stommel which will take place next Monday on World Oceans Day. A fireworm cruise and snorkel trip with BBSR scientists are also scheduled later this month.

"Bermudians are surrounded by the ocean. It affects our health, our economy and our quality of life," BBSR annual fund committee chairman Buddy Rego said in a press statement.

"BBSR's mission is to understand the ocean and to pass this knowledge on to everyone from primary school children to senior citizens. One of the key ways we achieve that mission is through local support of our research and education programmes. BBSR's members have played an essential role in the last 100 years of marine science and we want to get as many new people as possible involved in the next century of research and education."

The BBSR, an independent marine science organisation and registered charity, was founded in 1903 by scientists from Harvard and New York Universities to utilise Bermuda's ideal location for deep-ocean and coral reef research and education.