Jeffrey Marlow is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Boston University, where his lab studies the functional links between microbes and their environment at deep-sea methane seeps and hydrothermal vents, salt marsh sediments, and volcanoes. This work combines metabolic activity measurements and microscopic imaging to see individual microbes and their mineralogical surroundings “as they really are,” revealing mineral-dependent patterns of microbial abundance and metabolic activity.
On the Chile Margin expedition, Jeff is particularly interested in studying the microbial habitats of unsampled methane seeps and hydrothermal vents. By measuring rates of methane, metal, and nitrogen cycling, as well as the mineralogical “neighborhoods” that host diverse microbial communities, he hopes to clarify the biogeochemical impacts of chemosynthetic microbial habitats off the Chilean coast.
Jeff received his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, his M.Phil. from Imperial College Londong, and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. Outside of the lab, he works with the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative to bring rigorous science to the UN’s High Seas Treaty negotiations, and is the Executive Director of the Ad Astra Academy, which uses the inspirational power of exploration to encourage students around the world to pursue STEM fields.
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