TITLE: Professor
ACADEMIC INSTITUTION: University of Delaware, and
University of Waikato, New Zealand

 

What is your role in Extreme 2008? 
Chief Scientist and Principal Investigator

What questions are you trying to answer and why?
There are two primary science projects supporting this voyage. We are examining the role of (1) viruses and (2) protists in controlling the composition and structure of microbial communities that dominate vent systems.  I am a principal investigator on both – meaning my lab at the University of Delaware will be working on each of these projects.  My specific interests involve looking at the bacterial communities and the protists and viruses found within them. 

Why is this research important? What are the benefits?
For many years, the vents have been explored with little to no attention to viruses and the protist communities. This is kind of weird, when you think that these would be the members that would have the most dramatic effect on the bacterial communities that support the vent system.  These research programs are the first to focus on these remarkable scavengers.

What's your background, and what lured you into marine science/education?
I was born and raised in California only a few miles away from the beach. I literally grew up on the water and knew from a very early age that I would end up studying the sea. I was always fascinated with biology and began to focus on this sincerely in high school.  I spent some time in England where I met a young and enthusiastic marine biologist from Australia who introduced me to the wonders of marine microbiology.

I went to university in Florida, living only an hour from the Florida Keys – where I learned to SCUBA dive.  I went on to do a master's degree in marine sciences at San Diego State University and went on to a Ph.D at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

I was fortunate to be at Scripps just after the deep-sea vents were discovered and managed to make an aspect of this system the subject of my research and dissertation. I have been working on them ever since. I was lucky to receive a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation to work with Prof. Steve Giovannoni, at Oregon State University, one of the first to apply DNA-based methods to marine microbial ecology. 

The experience at OSU and with Steve was a major turning point in my career and has been a primary direction in my research ever since.  Four years later, I was offered a position at the University of Delaware where I have been ever since.  Four years ago, I accepted a joint position at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and now share my time between the two institutions.  Still fascinated by how microorganisms can survive living at the extreme of life, I have recently extended the range of extreme environments where I conduct my research to include the Dry Valleys of Antarctica.