Business Leaders: Deborah Bronk steers Bigelow Lab expansion to boost reach, programming

Photo / Tim Greenway Deborah Bronk says the expansion of Bigelow Lab will support research, teaching and innovation for research with commercial applications.

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By Laurie Schreiber

2025 Business Leaders of the Year
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Deborah Bronk is president, CEO and a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, which will soon open its $31 million, 25,000-square-foot Center for Ocean Education and Innovation, to support expanded programming and solutions-focused science. Bronk’s fascination with microscopic organisms and the ocean guided her career, including three decades of research cruises and field expeditions spanning the poles. Bigelow Laboratory gets about half of its funding from federal grants.

Mainebiz: What’s the lab’s mission?

Deborah Bronk: We study the microscopic organisms that are the foundation of life in the ocean. That’s our foundational research. The other side is our solution-based work, getting products or services into the market to drive change. We also have education programs that train the next generation of scientists.

MB: What attracted you to Bigelow?

DB: Bigelow is tops in microbial oceanography — and I mean globally, not just the States. I was attracted to Bigelow’s business model, which is the most efficient I have seen for doing science. We provide 12 weeks of salary to our scientists each year. That’s it. That means they have to consistently innovate and produce new ideas to get additional funding to support their lab group. When somebody gets a grant, everyone is excited, because grants keep the doors open. It’s a brilliant model that encourages collaboration.

We’re very nimble. We can decide on something and execute that afternoon. We also have a flat governance structure. The empowerment of scientists allows us to jump on opportunities.

MB: What’s the status of the expansion?

DB: We’ll move into the new space in April. The building we’re in now is Platinum LEED certified and uber-efficient. But the three wings are purely research, with no teaching labs and only one classroom.

The new space has teaching laboratories, two classrooms and innovation space for research with commercial applications. We want to be the ideal place that helps launch and support companies throughout Maine.

The new center also has a forum to host events. Our scientists travel around the country for conferences and workshops. I want bring those conferences and workshops to Boothbay and to Bigelow. I also would love to get Boothbay high school students here for upper division science classes.

MB: What’s involved in fit-up?

DB: I have to raise $250,000 for teaching-lab equipment. We’ll move some older equipment in to get us started, but we want students on state-of-the-art equipment.

It’s been amazing to watch the building go up. I can’t say enough about how great Consigli Construction has been to work with. Building a laboratory is daunting, but we’re (knock on wood) on time and on budget.

MB: Are federal uncertainties affecting the lab?

DB: Yes. We have $5 million in [National Science Foundation] grants that were recommended for funding in limbo. We’ve lost contracts for fee-for-service activities, from places that are losing funding. That threatens our ability to provide other services — for example, biotoxin testing for the scallop industry. I hoped to hire four to five new scientists, each building their own groups with people who now may not be moving to Boothbay. We’re in good financial shape, but I don’t want to oversell our security. If the science agencies take draconian cuts, that’s an existential threat.

MB: What do you love about this field?

DB: I come to work every day knowing that we’re making the world better. The climate is changing, the ocean is overtaxed, the fisheries are depleted, we’re looking at a scary future. But we can do remarkable things and science is the foundation of that. I know that if we get these projects across the finish line, we can make dramatic changes.