Sergio deRada , PhD

Sergio deRada is an NRL scientist with over ten years of numerical modeling experience working with biological, optical, and physical oceanographic and atmospheric models, including the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM), the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), and the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). deRada is involved in transitioning research products to operations and developing end-user tools for decision making and analysis of scientific data. deRada implemented the Gulf of Mexico Modeling System (GOMMS), a data-assimilative bio-optical-physical ocean model, which currently runs in real-time and is used to support various projects, including GoMRI funded research.

Cole Easson, PhD

Cole Easson is postdoctoral researcher at the Halmos College for Natural Sciences and Oceanography and a research scientist for the DEEPEND consortium. He earned his BS in Biology and PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Mississippi. His PhD research investigated stressors to coral reef organisms, particularly anthropogenic inputs of nutrients, marine diseases, and how these stressors affected interactions among reef organisms. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham focusing on microbial ecology and symbioses, with an emphasis on tropical marine sponges, as well as the development of online bioinformatics tools and workflows for processing large comparative datasets. For the DEEPEND project, Cole is in charge of characterizing the microbial community dynamics of the northwest Gulf of Mexico over space and time, and how these dynamics relate to broader oceanographic features. Microbial communities will be assessed using an Illumina MiSeq next-generation sequencer to capture the environmental microbiome of the northwest Gulf of Mexico. .

Tory Hendry, PhD

Dr. Tory Hendry is a Research Scientist in the Department of Microbiology at Cornell University and work in her lab is broadly focused around understanding the evolution and ecology of bacteria interacting with hosts. She earned a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan where she used comparative genomics and molecular evolutionary analyses to study the unculturable luminous symbionts of anomalopid flashlight fish. This background serves as a basis for current work in the lab, understanding the evolutionary consequences of host interactions for bacteria. Dr. Hendry gained postdoctoral experience at the University of Arizona and the University of California, Berkeley working on a tractable system of interactions between plant-associated bacteria and insects. Work in the Hendry lab continues to use genomic analyses and experiments with insect-microbe interactions as a model, particularly for understanding how these interactions shape the abundance and evolution of plant pathogens and agricultural pest insects.

In collaborations with the DEEPEND project Dr. Hendry will be will be sequencing the genomes of luminous symbionts from several deep sea ceratioid anglerfish species. She will use her experience with genomics in luminous symbionts to investigate genome evolution and the inferred ecology of these enigmatic and unculturable luminous bacteria.

Chuanmin Hu , PhD

Chuanmin Hu received the B.S. degree in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, and the Ph.D. degree in physics (ocean optics) from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, in 1997. He is currently a Professor with the College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, where he is also the Director of the Optical Oceanography Laboratory. He has been a Principal or a Co-principal Investigator of several projects funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey to study river plumes, harmful algal blooms or red tides, water quality and benthic habitat health, and connectivity of various ecosystems. He also dedicates his effort in establishing a Virtual Antenna System and a Virtual Buoy System to generate and distribute customized satellite data products in near real-time. He is a member of several professional organizations, and in 2013 he received the Gulf Guardian Award from the EPA for his contribution in research and service for the Gulf of Mexico. For the DEEPEND project, he and his group will collect and combine field and remote sensing data to characterize the upper ocean environment in the northern Gulf of Mexico to help interpret the deep ocean habitats." "

Charles Kovach

Charles Kovach graduated from USF (MS, Botany) & UM, Coral Gables FL (BS, Marine Sci/Bio). He is a DEEPEND research assistant under Dr. Chuanmin Hu at USFCMS, working with optical data collection and assisting with education/outreach projects. Charles spent 17 years as Senior Scientist with FDEP, and has been chasing oil from Key West to the Deepwater Horizon wellhead since April 20, 2010 (~300 days @ sea & not counting). In addition to work with Dr. Hu’s ocean optics lab, Charles currently serves as scientist for Suncoast Waterkeeper, adjunct scientist with Mote Marine Laboratory, and Adjunct Faculty with USFSP.

Ruth A. Musgrave

Ruth A. Musgrave is the Director of WhaleTimes, Inc. (www.whaletimes.org), a non-profit marine science education organization. Ruth received her BS in Education from Indiana State University. Ruth creates, teaches, and coordinates marine science education programs. She is also an award-winning children’s nonfiction author (www.ruthamusgrave.com). Ruth’s expertise includes connecting children and the general public to on-going ocean research, the researchers, the habitat, and the animals in unique and exciting ways. As part of the DEEPEND Team, Ruth created and coordinated the kindergarten to 6th grade education components including Creep into the DEEPEND Virtual Research Missions, Postcards from the DEEPEND, and accompanying curriculum. She also worked with the rest of the DEEPEND Outreach/Education Team to share the research and discoveries with people of all ages. Visit DEEPEND’s Education (http://outreach.deependconsortium.org/index.php/education/grades-k-5) and Taking Science Deeper (http://outreach.deependconsortium.org/index.php/education/tsd) pages or WhaleTimes’ website (www.whaletimes.org) to find out more.

Joe Lopez, PhD

Dr. Jose (Joe) Lopez is a Professor at the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center (NSU OC- http://www.nova.edu/ocean/overview/faculty-staff-profiles/jose_lopez.html) in Dania Beach Florida. He earned a Master’s degree in biology at the Florida State University, and his doctorate at George Mason University studying the evolution of mitochondrial DNA and its transpositions (Numt) in feline nuclear genomes at the National Cancer Institute. Dr Lopez then applied his molecular evolutionary training in postdoctoral appointments characterizing the Orbicella (formerly Montastraea) annularis coral sibling species complex at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and sponge genetics at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, in Ft Pierce FL. The latter introduced him to Johnson Sea-Link submersible technology to investigate deep sea sponges and corals. Since 2007, Dr Lopez’s current research at the NSU Center Excellence in Coral Reef Ecosystems Research, involves diverse projects encompassig marine invertebrate-microbial symbiosis, genomics and metagenomics, gene expression of marine organisms, marine microbiology, and systematics/phylogenetics for placing marine sponges on a global Tree of Life (www.PorToL.org). His lab has recently initiated the “Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance” (http://giga.nova.edu), that aims to coordinate genome sequencing of non-model invertebrate species, and Dr Lopez is also involved with the consortium of sponge biologists working on the global Earth Microbiome Project (http://earthmicrobiome.org). Overall, this research thread has resulted in over 40 peer-reviewed publications.

For the DEEPEND project, we will characterize microbial community diversity from the deep Gulf of Mexico using current molecular genetics and microbiology methods. One tool will include high throughput DNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis to obtain in depth, baseline and temporal taxonomic profiles of marine microbes in the absence of an acute oil spill.

Jay Rooker, PhD

Jay Rooker is a Regents Professor and the McDaniel Chair of Marine Fisheries at Texas A&M University (TAMU). He holds faculty appointments in the Department of Marine Biology (Galveston) and Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences (College Station). Professor Rooker is a recognized leader in the field of fisheries ecology, and his pioneering research using natural chemical tags has provided novel insights on the trans-ocean migration and natal homing of large pelagic fishes. He has been the lead scientist on a broad spectrum of projects on estuarine, coastal, and pelagic fishes over the past two decades in a variety of locations including the Mediterranean Sea, Hawaiian Islands, Equatorial Pacific Ocean, and Caribbean Sea. For DEEEPEND, Prof. Rooker will investigate the consequences of the DH oil spill on the early life ecology and population dynamics of pelagic fishes such as billfishes and tunas.

David Wells, PhD

Dr. David Wells is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University where he serves as the principal investigator of the Shark Biology and Fisheries Science Lab. Research in the lab is centered on obtaining a better understanding of the biology and ecology of sharks and bony fishes throughout marine ecosystems for proper conservation and sustainability of these valuable resources. The diversity of marine habitats currently studied includes an offshore to inshore continuum ranging from offshore open ocean systems, continental shelves, nearshore reefs, to estuarine seascapes. Current research focuses on fish habitat use, movement dynamics, trophic ecology, life history information, and anthropogenic impacts to fishery resources that can each be used in fishery stock assessments and by management for applied applications. Dr. Wells research in the GoMRI consortium will focus on food web structure and trophic connectivity using both stable isotopes and stomach content analyses. " "

Hernán Vázquez Miranda, PhD

My name is Hernán (pronounced Air-nan) and I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Florida International University with Dr. Heather Bracken-Grissom at Florida International University. My research involves evolutionary ecology questions in marine and terrestrial environments. In particular, I am interested in understanding how and when biological diversification events happen employing modern bioinformatics. Decapod crustaceans (your typical lobsters, shrimp, and crabs) are very old and diverse arthropods that pose fascinating research questions. Within the DEEPEND Consortium I am exploring patterns of diversification in the Gulf of Mexico in deep-sea shrimp using Next-Generation DNA sequencing technologies that allow us to collect genome-wide information for rare and poorly studied critters of the deep. In addition, I am analyzing millions of DNA sequences to look at gene expression in: 1) crabs exposed to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico to disentangle genes affected by oceanic pollution, and 2) bioluminescent deep-sea shrimp to find the genes related to seeing in the dark.

I received my PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2014 where I studied conservation genetics of birds in Baja California (I know right? Big zoological jump). For my masters and undergraduate degrees from UNAM in Mexico I studied tropical avian diversity. I really enjoy merging analytical and bioinformatics tools that help us understand the natural world regardless of the biological system. My broader academic interests beyond research include scientific teaching, mentoring, and diversity in STEM disciplines. .

Joseph Warren, PhD

Joseph D. Warren is an associate professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. He received a B.S. in Engineering (General) with Distinction in 1994 from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in 2001 in Applied Ocean Sciences from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and Ocean Engineering. His research focuses on the use of active acoustics to study the distribution and abundance of nekton and zooplankton in marine and freshwater systems, as well as the bottom-up and top-down processes that affect these distributions. In addition to field surveys, his research interests include: improving the accuracy of acoustic scattering models; use of passive acoustics to study fish, mammal, and invertebrate ecology; and predator-prey (fish/zooplankton and marine mammals/seabirds/pinniped) dynamics. He has conducted acoustic surveys from vessels ranging from rowboats to 300' ice-breakers and led research projects throughout the world from the lakes of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the coastal waters of New York City to the coral reefs of Jamaica to the Western Antarctic Peninsula. As part of the DEEPEND consortium, he will be working with Dr. Boswell to measure and interpret the ecosystem dynamics of the deep sound scattering layers.

Marsh Youngbluth, PhD

Marsh Youngbluth is an Affiliate Professor at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute campus of Florida Atlantic University. His educational degrees include a B.S. (Portland State University), M.S. (University of Hawaii) and Ph.D. (Stanford University). He is a Biological Oceanographer whose research has addressed ecological and behavioral questions through studies of pelagic fauna including copepods, krill and gelatinous zooplankton using scuba, nets, sonar and submersibles. In situ investigations have been conducted in shallow (lagoons, estuaries and coral reefs) and deep (mesopelagic and bathypelagic) water habitats within Arctic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific seas. He has served as Director of the National Undersea Research Program and National Science Foundation, advisor for Deep Submergence Science Committee and Census of Marine Life Program, and editor of international marine science journals. For the past three years he has contributed to the NOAA NRDA Gulf of Mexico Offshore Sampling and Analysis Programby identifying gelatinous zooplankton collected in MOCNESS tows.

His role for the DEEPEND project will be to continue biodiversity investigations of soft-bodied fauna to document their temporal and spatial distribution patterns in relation to differences in habitat conditions within the uppermost 1500 m. This research will provide a component needed for understanding shifts in the structure and dynamics of pelagic food webs.