Jeff is the most recent principal investigator to join the NOAA PMEL Earth-Ocean Interactions group. He is an Assistant Professor (senior research) in the Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resources Studies (CIMERS) located in Newport, Oregon. Jeff received his Ph.D in marine geology and geophysics from Oregon State University in 2016. He specializes in … Continued
Dave is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, who spent his early years in Portland and has lived in Seattle since 1984. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from the University of Washington in 1990. Dave is Principal Research Scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES) at the … Continued
Sean McAllister is a member of the biology team from CICOES/UW and PMEL/NOAA, specializing in molecular and microbial ecology. Currently a postdoc on this expedition, Sean earned his Ph.D. in marine biosciences from the University of Delaware, studying the functional diversity and expression of genes within a group of marine iron-oxidizing Bacteria. Building on these … Continued
Dr. Bayleigh Benner is an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Huber at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry. She is a molecular virologist and microbiologist who is interested in uncovering the viral diversity present in marine and freshwater ecosystems, with a particular emphasis on RNA … Continued
Megan is a second-year MSc student studying Biology at the University of Victoria (UVic) in Dr. Amanda Bates’ lab and co-supervised by Dr. Cherisse Du Preez with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Her research focuses on identifying functional and bio-diversity patterns on seamount systems using species’ traits. She is interested in how these patterns might shift … Continued
Monika is a M.Sc student in the Department of Oceanography at Dalhousie University, supervised by Dr. Anna Metaxas. Monika’s research focuses on characterizing non-vent animal communities at deep-sea hydrothermal vents using video annotation tools. She is interested in understanding what drives the distribution and abundance of species on inactive substrates surrounding vents. She hopes that … Continued
Marc Fontánez’s interest lies in understanding the spatiotemporal patterns of microbial diversity and dynamics that govern aquatic ecosystems. He applies molecular techniques to render possible the exploration of the regimes that may structure microbial communities throughout the ocean biosphere. This approach has been helpful for him, for example, in comparing the structure of free-living and … Continued
June de Arce is an Assistant Bosun on Research Vessel Falkor (too).
Dr. Virmani is the first Executive Director of Schmidt Ocean Institute. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Planet & Environment at XPRIZE, where she worked on several global competitions for innovation, including leading the launch of the Rainforest XPRIZE, a competition for innovations in biodiversity assessment technologies. She also led the Shell Ocean Discovery … Continued
