Karthik Anantharaman

Karthik Anantharaman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the University of Michigan in 2014 studying the geomicrobiology of deep-sea hydrothermal plumes. His interdisciplinary research program focuses on understanding the cycling of sulfur and nutrients, with a strong … Continued

Rachael Karns

Rachael Karns is a first year Ph.D student in Dr. Mandy Joye’s lab at the University of Georgia and is extremely excited to be returning to the Gulf of California on her second research cruise. She first earned her B.Sc in Biology at Roanoke College in 2015, and went on to achieve her M.Sc in … Continued

Zachary Marinelli

Zac is a research technician in the Joye Research Group at the University of Georgia. He earned a B.S. in Biology and a M.S. in the Biological Sciences from Youngstown State University in 2015 and 2017 respectively. He’s interested in studying microorganisms that inhabit methane-rich environments, especially those involved in the anaerobic oxidation of methane.

Charlotte Kollman

Charlotte is currently in her first year of her MS program at Coastal Carolina University’s Coastal Marine and Wetland Studies program. She works in the Groundwater Discharge Measurement Facility, as a member of Rick Peterson’s lab, where she studies submarine groundwater flows in bacterial mats on the sea floor using naturally occurring radium isotopes. Her thesis … Continued

Christian Borowski

Dr. Christian Borowski is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. He has a diploma in biology and a Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of Hamburg. Germany. His work in the Department of Symbiosis at the Max Planck Institute centers around chemosynthetic symbioses at deep sea hydrothermal … Continued

María del Carmen Millán Motolinía

Of Mexican nationality, formed in the Postgraduate in Earth Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Carmen specializes in the Hydroacoustic Processing (Multibeam Bathymetry and Seismic Reflection of high resolution). She has experience in Marine Geophysical Research campaigns in Mexico since 2011, including studies in the Submarine Canyon Balsas, Guaymas Basin and Lost Folding … Continued

Jason Westrich

Dr. Jason Westrich is a postdoctoral researcher working under the direction of Mandy Joye at the University of Georgia.  Jason has been working in aquatic microbial ecology for the past decade investigating microbial structure and function in both marine and freshwater environments. Jason did his PhD at the Odum School of Ecology examining the role of trace metal … Continued

Andy Montgomery

Andy Montgomery is pursuing a PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of Georgia. He is a 5th year graduate student in Mandy Joye’s lab. Andy studies how the dynamic chemistry of the ocean affects microbial activity. More specifically, he studies how carbon and nitrogen availability dictate microbial processes such as methane or ammonia oxidation. … Continued

Jessie Mitchell

Jessica Mitchell is in her fifth year of graduate school at Harvard University in Prof. Peter R. Girguis’s lab. She loves thinking about all of the amazing things microbes can do. For example, symbiotic associations with microbes can expand the metabolic repertoire of other organisms, influence local geochemistry and the ecosystems in which they live. … Continued

Monika Bright

Monika Bright is a Professor at the University of Vienna, Austria and is appointed speaker of the Center of Functional Ecology at the Faculty of Life Sciences. Monika received her Ph.D. in zoology and paleontology at the University of Vienna in 1992 and her habilitation in marine biology and zoology in 2001. Her research interests … Continued