Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm is the principal investigator of The Chisholm Labs at MIT, where she specializes in the study of the ecology and evolution of ocean microbes. Her research focuses particularly on the most abundant marine phytoplankton, Prochlorococcus, a tiny marine bacteria that influences the globe's climate, which she co-discovered in the 1980s. She was awarded the Crafoord Prize in 2019 for her discoveries, which is considered the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in the field of biosciences.

Chisholm has received numerous other accolades, including being named to Forbes' "50 Over 50 - Innovation" list in 2023. She received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2013, and the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology, "for being one of the most productive, charismatic and active researchers on biology and marine ecology," the same year. She was a co-recipient in 2012 of the Ruth Patrick Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and was awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal in 2010. Chisholm is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She attended Skidmore College and earned a PhD from SUNY Albany. Following her Ph.D., she served as a post-doctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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