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Classroom@Sea » Cruises » James Cook explores the East Scotia Ridge for life at black smokers » Meet the Team

James Cook explores the East Scotia Ridge for life at black smokers

	Alex Rogers - Principal Investigator Alex studies the ecology, biodiversity and evolution of deep-sea ecosystems, especially cold-water coral reefs, seamounts, hydrothermal vents and seeps. He is particularly interested in patterns of species distribution in the deep sea and how these relate to biological and physical factors and the history of the oceans. An aspect of this work is identifying and predicting the impacts of human activities on deep-sea ecosystems and contributing to knowledge relevant to the conservation of deep-sea habitats and species. Alex is based at the Institute of Zoology.
	Belinda Alker Belinda is a geochemist and her work on this cruise involves the analysis of the water and gasses from the hydrothermal vents and therefore works as part of “Team Geochemistry”. Belinda came from South Africa to Southampton when she was ten and has stayed ever since. She went to school and university in Southampton and then ‘moved down the road’ to NOCS as a geochemist. Her outside interests include Slow Pitch Softball, and plays for the ‘Hursley Hurricanes’ as well as recently being chosen for the GB national squad.
	Alfred Aquilina Alfred hails from Malta and is a geochemist. Having been at school and a university graduate in Malta he came to Bristol University for his Ph.D in marine chemistry and then to the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) for his post-doctorate research. His interest on this trip is the chemical analysis of deep sea sediment samples especially from methyl hydrate sites. His main interests outside of work, when he has time, is travelling which he is certainly doing now!
	Andrew Clarke Andrew is a marine ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey. Indeed he is ‘Mr Antarctica’, having spent 40 years of his life devoted to the science of the Antarctic. His primary interests relate to animals and temperature; how light or lack of it, temperature and especially the deep cold waters of Antarctica affect the animals found there. His interests are many, as you would expect, and include music, reading and natural history. Indeed if he had another title it would be ‘Mr Natural History’; he can identify a flying dot on the horizon, or something coming to the surface for a few seconds and describe it in great detail. Wikipedia would be proud of him!
	Doug Connelly Doug is a geochemist from the NOCS and is part of the geochemistry team who play such a vital role in this scientific cruise. He spends a lot of time at sea looking for exciting new vent sites so that he can take other scientists back to look at them. He of course gets another cruise! When he is not at sea he helps to develop the ‘chemical noses’ that sniff out the signals given out by vents over very long distances. In the past years he has been investigating many vent sites in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, but this is only his second visit to polar waters.
	Jon Copley Jon is a deep sea marine biologist. He initially trained at Sheffield University in Zoology and Oceanography before coming to NOCS for his Ph.D and initial post-doctorate research. He then spent two years as a science writer with New Scientist before coming back to NOCS to continue his teaching and deep-sea research. He enjoys trying to unravel the life cycles of animals in deep sea volcanic beds. His outside of work interests include the martial arts, his Jack Russell terrier and running, especially uphill – so you can all see that he is a glutton for punishment!
	John Dinley John is wearing two hats on this cruise. The first is that of ship’s doctor and the second is that of a marine scientist who is just finishing his PhD at NOCS. John started his medical life as a doctor in General Practice before becoming an Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon for 25 years. Because of his hobbies in marine environment and scuba diving he started a PhD in marine biology when he retired from surgery. He is now investigating how marine worms (polychaetes) catch and digest their food. His hobbies are golf, travel, and flying.
	Chris German Our blogmeister for the expedition Chris is geochemist. He is a very well known senior international marine scientist and one of the co-founder scientists along with Prof Paul Tyler of this series of Southern Ocean hydrothermal vent explorations. As an undergraduate at Oxford, Chris planned to study chemical engineering but soon switched to geological sciences and did his PhD in Marine Geochemistry. His early post doctorate years were spent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying fluid chemistry during which time he was one of the first people to see the sea floor ‘live’ in ALVIN the USA manned deep submergence vehicle. He returned to England to work at NOCS from where, over a ten year period and with coordinated international collaboration, he and his team discovered many new hydrothermal vent sights around the world – including the ones we are investigating on this cruise. He lives in the USA and is Chief Scientist for Deep Submergence at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as being the co-chairman of the ChEss project. We understand that Chris plays a mean bass guitar, which his family gave him for his 40th birthday. I suspect it was to try and keep him from going to sea so often!
	Alistair Graham Ali is a marine geophysicist and geologist working with British Antarctic Survey (BAS). On this cruise together with Veerle Huvenne, he is part of ‘Team Terrain Mapping”, helping us to map out the vent fields. When the ISIS ROV is flying around the many black smoker chimneys Ali and Veerle are telling us where we are and sometimes where to go. Ali did his undergraduate degree at Royal Holloway College, London and went on to study marine geophysics for his PhD at Imperial College. His other interests are the geology and palaeoglaciology of the former ice sheets. With ‘ice cores’ and other marine data he can reconstruct the past ice floes in the West Antarctic ice sheet. Outside of work Ali is a very keen jazz guitarist so the together with all the other musicians on board we shall soon be able to put together a ‘Cruise Blues’ evening!
	Darryl Green Darryl is a geochemist whose job it is on this trip to sample the very high temperature vent fluids from the ‘Black Smokers’ and analyse their chemical elements. Darryl graduated in chemistry in York and now is a senior member of ‘Team Geochemisty’ based at NOCS. His hobbies are photography, family and travel.
	Jeff Hawkes Jeff is a biogeochemist and his main interest on this scientific cruise is the evaluation of the biochemistry of the “black smokers” and diffuse vent fields. He graduated from Bristol University in Chemistry. He is now at NOCS for his post-doctorate research. After living in Granada for six months he is nearly fluent in Spanish. He has a variety of outside interests including football, squash and the guitar with which he is keeping us all entertained between watches!
	Laura Hepburn Laura is a geochemist and in the first year of her PhD at NOCS. On this cruise she is studying the ‘pore fluids’ from the sediment cores which are tubes of the mud, sand and fine particles taken by pushing a metal or plastic tube into the seabed. Laura lives near Southampton and has done all her science training, so far, at the University of Southampton and NOCS. After her PhD she would like visit one of the big marine science centres in the USA. Her hobbies are reading although she is a budding expert at ‘Wii Olympics’. As you can see from Laura’s photograph she is a bit of a ‘hat girl’ and brightens the ship with what seems to be a new beanie every day.
	Veerle Huvenne Veerle is a marine geologist specializing in habitat morphology. Her indispensible work on this cruise is to the mapping of the seabed with sonar, in the areas of the incredible ‘black smoker chimneys’. These maps give the ROV pilots and scientists a kind of ‘route map’ so that they can find individual chimneys and know exactly where they are when very unusual animals are seen. Veerle hails from Belgium where she did her undergraduate training as an environmental engineer and later a PhD in marine geology. In between these times she came to NOCS to do her Master’s degree and then came back to the UK and NOCS to continue developing her interests in ‘habitat mapping’. To relax her hobbies include music and hiking.
	Rachel James Rachel is a marine geochemist and part of “Team Geochemistry”. At present, she is leading the team in examining the chemistry of the deep sea in and around the hydrothermal vents (or black smokers). She is very good at telling the ROV pilots where to position their high temperature probes right in the black smoking chimneys of the hydrothermal vents. Her special scientific interests are studying the low temperature diffusing fluids around the chimneys of black smokers and seeing how these influence the life of the inhabiting plants and animals. Rachel was an undergraduate of the University of Southampton and went on to do her PhD at Cambridge in hydrothermal chemistry. After eight years as a senior lecturer with the Open University she moved back to Southampton and NOCS last year. She enjoys competitive swimming and watching rugby; particularly the Wasps and especially Simon Shaw!
	Katrin Linse Katrin is a marine biologist with a special interest in the evolution of Antarctic marine animals. Therefore on this cruise she will be examining a complete selection of all the animal species we find over 2 kilometres down on the seabed around the hot vent chimneys and in the colder areas. She was born in Germany and graduated at Kiel University, where she subsequently did her Masters degree. She then moved to the University of Hamburg and to the Zoology Museum for her PhD in which she compared muscles and marine snails found off the Southern tip of South America with those found in Antarctica. She joined The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge ten years ago. Despite her heavy workload she still fits in family life and scuba diving with her husband Peter, who is also a BAS scientist and Tim who is now 21 months old; and guess what he is going to do?!
	Leigh Marsh Leigh is a first year PhD student at NOCS. She was an undergraduate of the University of Southampton, and after qualifying did a number of very interesting jobs with English Nature and the Environment Agency as a marine conservation officer. More recently she has continued with her interests in marine conservation as a commercial marine ecologist. When asked about her interests and hobbies, Leigh said that she is much too tired, because of all the scientific work that she is doing on this trip, even to think about them but normally she enjoys cycling.
	William Reid Will is a marine ecologist, whose work and interests on this trip are with collecting animals and plants to try to understand ‘the food web’ of the deep sea and especially what the animals around the hydrothermal vents feed on. Along with Chris Sweeting he is part of the small but highly active “Team Newcastle”. Will is from Glasgow, and having done his undergraduate marine biology training in Aberdeen, he came to NOCS to do his Masters degree. Following this he joined BAS for three years, two of which were spent on South Georgia in whose waters some of our research has been carried out. He is now in Newcastle halfway through a PhD in mid-ocean ridge habitats. His hobbies are hill walking, photography, following Scottish Rugby, and skiing. He was certainly regarding the snows on the South Georgia Mountains with more than a passing interest!
	Nicolai (Chris) Roterman Chris is a deep sea biologist and a PhD student at NOCS. His work for this involves looking at the DNA of deep sea animals and trying to see where this fits in with the DNA of other animals in the huge puzzle of ‘The Tree of Life’. He was an undergraduate at Cambridge University, studying biology, and then took two years out from marine sciences to earn some money surfing for two large surf equipment manufacturers in the USA. He then worked as a fisheries biologist in the winter season in Alaska; “the hardest six months of my life” he quotes! Rest obviously needed he became a ‘marine mammal observer’ in the Gulf of Mexico for two years. He came to NOCS and University of Southampton to do his Masters degree and is now study for his PhD. No marks for guessing Chris’s hobby; SURFING!
	Christopher Sweeting Chris is a marine biologist and together with Will Reid forms ‘Team Newcastle’. His interest on this cruise is to try to determine the food web structures in the area around the hydrothermal vents; in other words ‘who eats what and why”. Chris comes from St. Andrews but moved south to do his undergraduate training in Newcastle. He liked ‘Geordie Land’ so much that not only did he stay to study for his PhD in Newcastle but is also still continuing his work there in the Department of Marine Sciences. His hobbies are scuba diving and mountain biking.
	Katrin Zwirglemaier Katrin is an environmental biologist and her work here involves looking and examining anything to do with bacteria in sediments, rocks and animals. Katrin hails from Munich in Germany, where she went to school and university. She was awarded her PhD in Munich in Environmental Biology. She is an anglophile, and moved to the University of Warwick to continue her research into marine environmental biology, and enjoy England. She has recently joined the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge and her first day at work was on this cruise. Here hobbies are ‘Shakespeare’ and martial arts; so be polite at all times and pirates beware!

Sven Thatje

Sven is an evolutionary ecologist studying the diversity of organisms found in the oceans and especially those of the deep ocean and of Antarctic waters. On this scientific cruise he will be studying the anatomy and physiology of decapod crustacean species living, in what to us would be, a completely inhospitable environment around the black smoker chimneys of the vent sites under investigation.
Sven hails from northern Germany. He was an undergraduate in Kiel studying zoology, and moved to Bremen University to study for his PhD in Natural Sciences. As part of the field work for this, he spent over a year in Southern Argentina and now speaks fluent Spanish, German and English. He then spent time with BAS during his post-doctorate time before being appointed as a lecturer at NOCS.
He is keen on a number of sports including rowing for ‘Itchen Imperial Rowing Club’, as well as running and cycling. He also plays the trombone so our potential ‘musical evening’ is gathering strength!