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Danielle is a first-year graduate student who works with the ECOGIG Principal Investigator Eric Cordes. She graduated with a degree in biology from Penn State. Here, on R/V Falkor, Danielle is conducting at-sea exposure experiments on the coral species Callogorgia and Paramurecia. This is Danielle’s first research cruise. She has been on the ship since this … Continued

Dr. Sara Kleindienst is a post-doctoral researcher who works with the ECOGIG Principal Investigator Samantha Joye. Sara is a microbial ecologist who studies how microbes degrade hydrocarbons. She completed her graduate work in her native Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. Sara has been on the ship since the first leg of … Continued

Jennie is collecting sediment samples for the Demopoulos lab at USGS for studies of the macro- and meiofauna in the sediments around seeps. She has been on the ship since the first leg of the cruise. Jennie processes the sediments collected by ROV push cores and the multicore system.

Erin works with Dr. Chuck Fisher as a post-doctoral researcher. Her graduate research focused on food web ecology of hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. On R/V Falkor, she will be assisting Dannise Ruiz and other researchers with laboratory experiments.

Dannise is in her 4th year as a graduate student and works with the ECOGIG Principal Investigator Iliana Baums. Dannise’s research project focuses on exposure experiments involving live coral specimens of the species Leiopathes. She is conducting experiments onboard with specimens collected by the ROV.

Samantha is a junior who has been working in the Fisher lab for the past year. She is in charge of organizing the coral image library from past cruises. She maintains the notebooks with the “mug shots” of each coral colony that are being monitored as part of the research. This is Samantha’s first research … Continued

Richard is a first-year graduate student in the Fisher lab. He earned an undergraduate degree in Biology from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is interested in deep-sea community ecology and, more specifically, in crustateans. During this cruise, he will be processing and analysing the images of the deep-sea coral communities. This is Richard’s … Continued

Miles manages the Fisher lab and uses his geography expertise as the GIS analyst to create maps and assist with spatial data analyses. On this cruise, Miles makes sure that all the scientific gear needed for the ROV is ready and installed on the vehicle before every dive. He assists wherever needed with sample collection … Continued

Dr. Chuck Fisher is a deep-sea ecologist whose research interests cover the physiology and ecology of animals harboring chemoautotrophic symbionts, such as cold seep tube worms and deep-sea corals. He has worked extensively with submersible and robotic vehicles as he studied these communities in their extreme environments. Dr. Fisher serves as one of the principal … Continued