2023 Heart of Marin Volunteer of the Year, presented by the Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership, San Rafael, CA on January 11, 2024.
Earthwatch Institute’s Teach Earth Fellowship Program in Tamarindo, Costa Rica (2016): Costa Rican Sea Turtles expedition. http://earthwatch.org/education/teacher-fellowships
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Teacher at Sea Program (2015): Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies Survey. http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/#/2015/Michael*Wing/blogs
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2013 Ocean Guardian Schools Program grant ($4000) to collect and analyze the origins of marine plastic debris on Point Reyes Beach. http://michaelrwing.com/projects/tsunami-debris-project/
National Geographic Society / Waitt Grant for $12,000 (W186-11) “A Worldwide Array of Artificial Hypoliths: First Data.” Dr. Wing was the principal investigator. This grant allowed him to spend the 2012 summer field season on Devon Island, in Canada’s high arctic, with NASA’s Haughton Mars Project. http://www.marsinstitute.no/
NASA’s Spaceward Bound Mojave 2009, Namibia 2010, United Arab Emirates 2011, Namibia 2012 and India 2016 expeditions. Studied cyanobacteria with NASA astrobiologist Christopher P. McKay and his colleagues. These expeditions resulted in Sir Francis Drake High School’s artificial hypoliths project: http://www.tamdistrict.org/drake/science/hypoliths
National Science Foundation – funded PolarTREC Program (2009). Participated in a month-long archaeological expedition in Northern Finland under the supervision of State University of New York at Buffalo archaeologist Ezra Zubrow. This experience resulted in our school’s investigation of a (possibly prehistoric) 800-foot stone line on the Point Reyes peninsula: http://www.tamdistrict.org/drake/science/stones
Director of Sir Francis Drake High School’s insulated experimental cold frame at the University of California’s White Mountain Research Station (elevation 12,470’) and leader of fourteen school expeditions to White Mountain Peak 2008-2016. This was the highest altitude cultivated ground in North America. Radishes, lettuce, potatoes and wheat have been grown successfully. Since 2008 this project has attracted almost $20 K in grants from the Toshiba America Foundation, the Amgen Corporation, and Pacific Gas & Electric. http://www.tamdistrict.org/drake/science/wmrs
2009 Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence ($10K) and the 2013 ING Unsung Heroes Award ($2K).
Toyota International Teacher Program to the Galapagos Islands (2007). Two week all-expenses-paid study tour of the Galapagos with a focus on sustainable development.