Seton Melvin

The Crown of Thorns Starfish and Its Threat to the Great Barrier Reef

The recipient of a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Williams College, Seton Melvin has served as director of the brain donor program at Mount Sinai Hospital since 1996. An avid traveler, Seton Melvin has visited all seven continents, and has been diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Since 2010, the Great Barrier Reef has been under constant threat from a coral-eating crown of thorns starfish (COTS) outbreak. In this time, more than 300,000 COTS have been culled along more than 80 reefs, thanks in part to the Indigenous Rangers. In July, the Australian government announced plans to further those efforts by awarding $28.6 million in contracts to mitigate one of the most pressing threats to the reef. This is part of the government’s larger $58 million COTS control program, which falls under its $443.3 million Reef Trust Partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The coordinated assault on the COTS, which are able to consume coral at an alarming rate, involves individual boats and divers, in addition to five fully crewed boats, and is supported by research conducted by the National Environmental Science Program. One COTS can eat as much as 32 feet of living coral per year, and the COTS population along the Great Barrier Reef has, in the past, been as high as 1,000 per 2.5 acres.

An Overview of the Brain Donation Process

brain writes with white chalk is on hand, draw concept.

Former commercial lender Seton Melvin served as a vice president at Mitsubishi Bank before focusing her efforts on the study of clinically documented brain injuries. Since 1996, Seton Melvin has served as the director of the brain donor program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Mount. Sinai’s brain donor program is housed within the institution’s Icahn School of Medicine, a leader in the area of biomedical research and patient care that boasts over 7,000 faculty and students. Brain donations play a vital role in the healthcare field, helping to drive innovative medical breakthroughs, and enabling researchers and practitioners to better understand neurological disorders and identify treatments and cures for brain diseases.

Brain donation procedures begin with a pre-registration process that involves the referral of a donor’s information to a brain bank, along with the completion of a variety of required release and consent forms. Following the death of a donor, the brain bank should be immediately notified to arrange transportation of the body and removal of the donated tissue. Once this process is completed, the body is returned to the family, who can request a free neuropathology report and post-mortem analysis.

Hudson River Park to Host a Public Art Project

Seton Melvin serves as the director of the brain donor program at Mount Sinai Hospital. A lover of art, Seton Melvin is a member of the Director’s Council of the Whitney Museum.

The Whitney Museum has partnered with the Hudson River Park Trust to create a permanent public art project that will be placed in Hudson River Park. The project will feature David Hammons’ “Day’s End,” which is inspired by the 1975 artwork of Gordon Matta-Clark.

Day’s End will be an open structure that offers a place for exploring the waterfront. The artwork will be affixed to the south shore of the Gansevoort Peninsula and will extend over the water. The artwork’s evanescent and ethereal effects will change because of the time of day and weather conditions.

Hammons’ artwork is expected to be opened to the public by the fall of 2020. As opening day approaches, the Whitney Museum will present an exhibition related to Matta-Clark’s project called “Around Day’s End: Downtown New York, 1970-1986.” The Whitney Museum will also produce interpretive materials, podcast series, and videos that will explore the history of the waterfront before the opening of Day’s End.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim

Seton Melvin is the director of the brain donor program at Mount Sinai Hospital, a position she’s held since 1996. In her free time, Seton Melvin in actively involved with many art museums in New York City, including the Whitney Museum and the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim is famous in part for its iconic exterior, designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and recently identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 1943, Wright was commissioned to design a museum for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection, which was then held in a temporary space on 54th Street. He spent the next 15 years on the project, creating 700 sketches and six sets of working drawings for the building.

Construction began in 1956, and continued for 3 years, with the museum officially opening at the end of 1959. Tragically, Wright died 6 months before the completion. Many art critics declared that the building was as much a monument to Frank Lloyd Wright himself as it was an art museum.

You can tour the building virtually while listening to an audio guide by visiting https://www.guggenheim.org/plan-your-visit/guggenheim-from-home.