TITLE: Biologist
ACADEMIC INSTITUTION: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico

What is your role in Extreme 2008? For this cruise, I'll get deep-sea hydrothermal sediment samples in both active and inactive vent sites.

What will you be doing while aboard Atlantis and Alvin?  What will your lab work look like and be like?  What will you be trying to find out or learn more about?   
I want to know what infaunal organisms live in these extreme locations.

What questions are you trying to answer and why? This is an important niche that must be explored to complement the data that have been recorded.           

What's your background, and what lured you into marine science/education? I'm a biologist, and I got involved in hydrothermal research looking for some answers related to the origin of life. I simulated hydrothermal vents in lab conditions  by making a mixture of gases that  were presupposed in primitive earth trying to get cyanide as a precursor for amino acids. Now I have the oportunity to study these enviroments alive, so I'm ready to participate in Extreme 2008.