Jacob Winnikoff is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Girguis Lab at Harvard University. He received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Stanford University in 2016 and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz in 2022. Jacob’s graduate research focused on biochemical adaptation to pressure in deep-sea comb jellies and was advised by Dr. Steven Haddock at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). He continues to study the fundamental effects of pressure and temperature on life, now in the context of deep-sea microbes and the habitability of deep, cold waters on moons of Jupiter and Saturn. During the August 2023 cruise to the Western Galápagos Rift, Jacob will examine microbial strategies for survival in the dramatic temperature gradients within hydrothermal chimney walls.
Cruises:
