Studying nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria by the acetylene reduction technique

I am Iowa bred, corn fed and now I love to work in the ocean. I grew up fishing and swimming in the Mississippi River before meeting the ocean at the age of 12. Even though I will always think Iowa is heaven on Earth, I decided to leave to enroll in the Marine Science undergraduate program at the University of Miami (Florida, not Ohio). If I wasn't hooked on oceanography before, the UM program totally got me addicted to oceanography and encouraged me to see how the physics, chemistry, and biology were related. After graduating, I decided to try applying the skills I had learned as an undergrad in a unique setting: Peace Corps Vanuatu. From 2003-2005 I served as a Coastal Resource Management volunteer, living in several small island villages. It was the most rewarding experience I can imagine, and not just because I met my husband.

After coming back to the U.S., I first learned to shop in giant American grocery stores, and then enrolled in the Masters Biology program at San Francisco State University.  I worked with Ed Carpenter, studying a coastal lagoon that experiences harmful algal blooms and occasional fish kills. With Ed's encouragement, I also joined a group from the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute to study nitrogen fixation in the Pacific atoll of Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia.

Continuing on the winding road to academia, I took a job as instrument technician, research diver, and general lab catch-all as a Seagrass Ranger in Jim Fourqurean's lab at Florida International University. The job was a great experience to apply the MacGyver approach of Peace Corps repairs (i.e.; how many things can I fix underwater with duct tape?) and the normal laboratory science methods that use gas chromatographs and spectrofluorometers.

Finally, I have made my way to the PhD program at IMCS under the advising of Paul Falkowski. Along with several post-docs and other scientists, I am working on characterizing the proteins found in coral skeletons. We hypothesize that these proteins play an active role in coordinating calcium and carbonate or bicarbonate ions to form the aragonite crystals that make up coral reefs. I can't believe how lucky I am that I get to do work that I truly enjoy and that helps to further general knowledge about how the world works!

Surveying seagrass cover in Florida Bay

With now-hubby and PCV Luke on Epi Island, Republic of Vanuatu

Peace Corps Vanuatu Group 16A with the U.S. Ambassador to the South Pacific (photo: Rika Hayashi)