Carnegie Mellon professor tapped as Whitney Lab’s next director

A Carnegie Mellon professor and administrator with extensive research and leadership experience in the biological sciences will serve as the next head of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience.

Veronica Hinman, the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences in the departments of Biological Sciences and Computational Biology and head of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon, will take the reins at the laboratory near St. Augustine on Florida’s northeast coast on January 1, 2025.

“Dr. Hinman is both a highly accomplished scientist and an experienced and respected academic leader, a combination of strengths that perfectly positions her to guide the Whitney Lab to greater prominence as one of the nation’s top marine science laboratories,” said UF Provost Scott Angle.

Hinman said Whitney’s growing reputation for scientific excellence, oceanside location, connection to the St. Augustine community and strong support from UF leadership create an “extraordinary opportunity” for the lab.

“I am eager to play a role in elevating the Whitney Lab’s already strong reputation, fostering international connections, and further raising its profile and research capabilities,” Hinman said. “I also look forward to strengthening Whitney’s partnership with UF as I join my colleagues in working toward establish it as a leading biological research facility on the world stage.”

Hinman has headed Carnegie Mellon’s biology department since 2019 and served at the university since 2006.  She earned her bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and zoology in 1989 and 1994, respectively, from the University of Queensland in Australia, and her doctoral degree in zoology in 2000 from the university’s Department of Zoology and School for Marine Science. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology in 2006.

The first woman to head Whitney, she joins the lab on its 50^th anniversary year, as it continues construction on a major new Marine Research Institute Building and Sea Turtle Research Center and Hospital.

Overlooking the Matanzas estuary, the $39.3 million, 38,000-square-foot facility will more than double the lab’s research space, adding 12 state-of-the-art faculty laboratories, an interactive marine research and conservation discovery lobby, scientific education pathway and outdoor classroom, and other facilities. It is scheduled to open in June 2025.

“With Dr. Hinman’s arrival and with a major new facility on the way, the Whitney Lab is starting a thrilling new era, and I look forward to seeing how it intensifies its focus on science and strengthens its commitment to education and public engagement,” Angle said.

Hinman will succeed Mark Q. Martindale, who has served as director of the lab since 2012 and will remain a professor of biology there after her arrival, where he will continue his research on the cellular and developmental biology of marine invertebrates.

“I’ve had the good fortune of leading an extraordinary group of colleagues on a great voyage of scientific discovery here at Whitney for over a decade,” Martindale said. “I and my colleagues are thrilled to welcome Dr. Hinman, and we look forward to experiencing how she nurtures and develops the lab’s many existing initiatives while leading us toward new horizons.”