Steve Auscavitch

Steve is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at Boston University. He is broadly interested in the ecology of deep-sea corals. His research focuses understanding the distribution, diversity, and evolutionary relationships among deep-water corals in the Phoenix Islands. Steve has participated as a scientist at sea, as well as ashore, on several expeditions … Continued

Ben Grassian

As part of Dr. Chris Roman’s lab group, Ben Grassian uses remote sensing (imaging and acoustic) platforms to describe biological communities and associated processes in the midwater environment. He is currently developing tools to derive relevant information from these systems to interrogate the complex linkages between local hydrography and organismal habits in a region of … Continued

Lisa Levin

Lisa Levin is a Distinguished Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, and served as the Director for the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from 2011-2017.  Levin received her B.S. from Radcliffe College and earned her Ph.D. at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Following 9 years as a professor at North … Continued

Lisa Levin

Lisa A. Levin is a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego and former Director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps. Her research examines the biodiversity of deep continental margin ecosystems including methane seeps and oxygen minimum zones. She examines the effects of climate … Continued

Jorge Cortés-Núñez

Jorge Cortés-Núñez is a researcher at the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología (CIMAR-Marine Science and Limnology Research Center) and professor at the School of Biology, both at the Universidad de Costa Rica. He has a B.Sc. in Biology from the Universidad de Costa Rica, a M.Sc. in Geology from McMaster University … Continued

Shannon Dwyer

Shannon Dwyer is currently an undergraduate student studying Biology at Temple University class of 2020. Shannon joined the Cordes Lab in early 2018 and has been helping out a graduate student, April Stabbins, with her project of DNA barcoding different species of crustaceans. After undergrad, she plans to further her studies and pursue PhD.  

Oliver S. Ashford

Oliver is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego. After completing his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge (2011), and master’s degree in Taxonomy and Biodiversity at Imperial College, London (2012), Oliver defended his PhD in Deep-Sea Ecology at the University of Oxford in 2017. … Continued

Alon Philosof

Alon Philosof is interested in the ecological role of viruses (mainly phages) in the marine environment. Globally, viruses constitute a large and abundant biomass, and are the second largest biomass in the oceans, exceeded only by the total biomass of bacteria. He is  especially interested in understanding the temporal and spatial dynamics of host-phage interactions … Continued

Betsy Pugel

Dr. Betsy Pugel hails from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and has spent the past five years as the Deputy to the Planetary Protection Officer at NASA Headquarters.  She thrives in environments where invention and collaboration are needed for resolving unique challenges.  She has worked on a range of missions for NASA, including the … Continued

John Magyar

John Magyar is a Research Scientist in Geobiology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. At Caltech, he works with Victoria Orphan on a variety of projects related to microbial extracellular electron transfer, anaerobic methane oxidation and sulfate oxidation in marine ecosystems, and the roles of viruses in … Continued