Where are you from, and what is your role in Extreme 2003?

I am from Arizona State University. I work jointly in the Department of Geological Sciences and the Chemistry Department. I am a design engineer for an interdisciplinary research group. My role in Extreme 2003, as part of the science crew, is to set up and deploy my research group’s sampling devices.

Part of my job was to design and build the sampling devices prior to the cruise. The devices are called Mineral Microcosms. They are designed to contain a well-defined pre-assembled environment mainly consisting of different mineral mixtures. There are temperature probes distributed inside that take temperatures and store them in a data logger that is part of the device so that after it is picked up, we can download that information to a laptop computer on the ship. There is also a water sampler that takes a fluid sample from within the sample chamber for later analysis on the ship after being picked up.

What kinds of questions will you try to answer, and why?

The Mineral Microcosms are designed to help us answer questions about how the mineralogy might affect a microbial population’s decision about colonizing the newly formed young chimney environment. Another part of this study is about the succession or ordering of the different kinds of microbes that do come to colonize it. These kinds of questions are important in recognizing how these environments compare or contrast with similar types of systems, maybe the kind we will find on another planet someday!

What lured you into marine research?

The thing that lured me into doing this kind of work is the adventure of exploring new places like the bottom of the ocean.