RESEARCHER BIOS
BIOLUMINESCENCE RESEARCHERS
Edith A. Widder, PhD •
Peter Herring, Ph.D. •
Mikhail Matz, Ph.D. •
Erika Heine
MARINE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHERS
Shirley A. Pomponi, Ph.D. •
Amy Wright, Ph.D. •
John K. Reed
Robin Willoughby, Ph.D. •
Tara Pitts •
Nicolas Joannin
VISUAL ECOLOGY RESEARCHERS
Tamara Frank, Ph.D. •
Eric Warrant, PhD •
Nicole McMullen
SUPPORT STAFF
Brian Cousin •
Paula Keener-Chavis •
John McDonough •
Arte Roman
Edith A. Widder, PhD •
widder@hboi.edu
Senior Scientist - Co-Principal Investigator
Bioluminescence Research - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Edie Widder received her Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of California,
Santa Barbara in 1982. She joined Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in
1989 where she is now senior scientist and director of the Bioluminescence Department.
She also holds adjunct appointments at Johns Hopkins University, Monterey Bay Aquarium
Research Institute, Florida Atlantic University and Florida Institute of Technology.
Her research interests in bioluminescence developed out of her experience piloting
the single-person submersibles Wasp and Deep Rover. In 1984, working from Deep Rover,
she made the first video recordings of bioluminescence in the ocean and has been striving
to accurately quantify the phenomenon ever since. This enterprise has involved the
development of a number of instrument systems, including the HIDEX-BP on which she co-holds
the patent and which is now the standard in the U.S. Navy for measuring bioluminescence
in the world's oceans. She is also the developer of Eye-in-the-Sea, a deep-sea observatory
designed to record bioluminescence behaviors in the ocean. Besides being an author on over
50 peer-reviewed scientific publications, Dr. Widder has recently produced a children's
book on bioluminescence, "The Bioluminescence Coloring Book" and an award winning educational
video, "Bioluminescence: Secret Lights in the Sea".
Peter Herring, Ph.D.
Professor
Southampton Oceanography Centre
Peter Herring took his first degree and Ph.D. at Cambridge University and spent
18 months at sea on the International Indian Ocean Expedition during the Ph.D.
Fired by this experience he joined the UK Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in
1966 as a oceanic biologist. He worked first on the pigments of deep-sea animals
and then focused on the physiology and ecology of bioluminescence in the deep-sea
environment, and its relation to vision. This has remained his major research
interest throughout his career but he has also worked on the distribution and visual
physiology of hydrothermal vent shrimp and the distribution of midwater animals
in relation to the oxygen minimum in the NW Indian Ocean. He has developed techniques
for the better capture and collection of live deep-sea animals and has been involved
as participant or Chief Scientist in over 60 research cruises on the ships of 5
different nations. He is fascinated by the capabilities of deep-sea animals and
regards sea-going research as the best part of his scientific career. He ranks his
previous dives in the Johnson SeaLink among his most rewarding experiences. He now
holds the post of Honorary Professor at the Southampton Oceanography Centre and his
book The Biology of the Deep Ocean was published this year by Oxford University Press.
Mikhail Matz, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist
Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida
In 2001 Mikhail Matz became a faculty member of the Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida.
He received his BA and MS in molecular biology from Moscow State University, Russia, and
has been trained as a top-level gene hunter during his graduate program and subsequent work as
research scientist at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia. His research
(which he defines as "molecular oceanography") involves screening various marine organisms
for genes and proteins that could become potential tools and/or models for basic biomedical
and marine biology studies, and pursuing the most promising of the new directions that arise
as a result. His current project (funded by NIH) is cloning and characterization of fluorescent
proteins homologous to the green fluorescent protein (GFP).
Erika Heine •
eheine@hboi.edu
Graduate Student
Johns Hopkins University/ Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Currently Erika is pursuing a doctorate degree in Oceanography at Johns Hopkins University.
She bases her research out of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution under the guidance of
Dr. Edith Widder. Erika is primarily interested in the spatial and temporal distribution of
coastal bioluminescence and plans to take a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the
mechanisms for creating and maintaining bioluminescent communities. Erika worked at Hopkins
Marine Station researching the population genetics of threatened salmonid populations in
California after completing her BS in Biology from California Polytechnic State University
(Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo. She retuned to Cal Poly for her MS in biology, completing her
thesis on phytoplankton communities and costal bioluminescence. During this time, she
participated in collaborative efforts at Rutgers Marine Station and MBARI. This summer Erika
is researching the relationship between bioluminescent flash kinetics in dinoflagellates and
their toxicity. On the cruise Erika will be assisting with the studies of benthic bioluminescence,
as well as collecting potentially bioluminescent and toxic species of dinoflagellates for
testing and culturing.
Shirley A. Pomponi, Ph.D. •
pomponi@hboi.edu
Co-Principal Investigator, Chief Scientist
Vice President and Director of Research - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Shirley Pomponi is one of the 3 co-principal investigators of the Deep Reefs Expedition for
Discovery of New Resources with Pharmaceutical Potential. She has led numerous research expeditions
to the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, and to the Galapagos Islands, Australia,
New Zealand, American Samoa, Seychelles, Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Lake
Baikal, Russia. Her research interests are on the systematics and cell biology of marine sponges,
one of the primary sources of chemicals with pharmaceutical potential. A major emphasis of her
research is on the development of cell culture methods for sustainable use of marine resources
for drug discovery and development. Dr. Pomponi is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel
to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the National Research Council's Committee on Exploration
of the Seas. She grew up in southern New Jersey, received her bachelor's degree in biology from
the College of St. Elizabeth, and received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the
University of Miami, RSMAS. She has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications in marine
biotechnology, biodiversity, cell and molecular biology, systematics and natural products chemistry.
Amy E. Wright, Ph.D. •
wright@hboi.edu
Co-Principal Investigator, Chief Scientist
Director, Division of Biomedical Marine Research - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
For the past 23 years, Dr. Wright has conducted research in the field of natural
products chemistry. She earned her doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University
for Califronia, Riverside working under the direction of Dr. James Sims. Currently she
is the Director of the Division of Biomedical Marine Research and the Head of the Natural
Products Chemistry group. Her research program focuses on the exploration of deep water
organisms as the source of novel marine natural products. Current research projects
emphasize drug discovery, evaluation of the ecological role of marine natural products;
applications of natural products chemistry to systematics of the Porifera and deep water
Gorgonacea; development of micro-analytical methods for monitoring aqua and cell cultures
used in the production of therapeutically important marine natural products; studies on
the role of microbial associates in the production of therapeutically interesting natural
products; and identification of the gene clusters responsible for polyketide synthesis
and use of the same in recombinant production of natural and "un-natural" natural productions.
John K. Reed •
reed@hboi.edu
Senior Research Specialist
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
John Reed is one of 3 co-principal investigators of the Deep Reefs Expedition for Discovery of
New Resources with Pharmaceutical Potential. Mr. John Reed is Department Head of the Sample
Acquisition and Taxonomy Program at DBMR for biomedical research to discover pharmaceutically
active compounds from marine organisms. Mr. Reed is Chief Scientist for DBMR in charge of
supervising and organizing >60 worldwide collection expeditions for biomedical research with HBOI's
research vessels, submersibles, and land-based expeditions. He is responsible for curating 30,000
specimens of marine organisms in DBMR's taxonomic museum collection and managing the collection
database, photographic library, and videotape library. Mr Reed is also the Diving Safety Officer
for all diving activities from Harbor Branch vessels and by a staff of 60 research divers. He
has logged 35 deep-water lockout dives with helium-oxygen from Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles,
logged >2000 scientific scuba dives, and >150 scientific dives in the Johnson-Sea-Link and Clelia
submersibles. Mr. Reed's research on the deep-water Oculina coral banks
off Florida since 1976 has resulted in over 45 publications and the establishment of a 300 sq.mi.
Marine Protected Area for these reefs. Mr. Reed received his B.S. from the University of Miami
and M.S. specializing in marine ecology from Florida Atlantic University in 1975.
Robin Willoughby, Ph.D. •
willoughby@hboi.edu
Research Specialist
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Robin Willoughby's research focuses on in vitro culture of marine sponges and spans a diversity
of disciplines ranging from organism collection and primary culture initiation to micro-scale gene
expression studies. At Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Dr. Willoughby works in the Division
of Biomedical Marine Research Invertebrate Laboratory and addresses questions in marine sponge cell
biology. She received a PhD and MS from Florida Institute of Technology. On the South Atlantic Bight
Deep Reef Expedition, she will be collecting and dissociating sponges for culture and gene expression
studies for two lines of research: to better understand the basic cell biology of these remarkably
simple multicellular animals, and to investigate how and why sponges produce chemicals that may treat
human diseases such as cancer. One goal of the research is to design systems for the in vitro
production of marine sponge-derived compounds with human therapeutic potential. Dr. Willoughby also uses
cellular and molecular perspectives to focus on the functional ecology of sponges and other marine
invertebrates. This expedition is her first opportunity to study sponges from the South Atlantic Bight region.
Tara Pitts •
tpitts@hboi.edu
Research Specialist
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Tara Pitts has worked in DBMR for over 15 years. She has participated in many research expeditions
with HBOI's ships and submersibles. Tara got her BS in marine biology from Florida Tech in Melbourne,
Florida. She also has received an AS in Medical Laboratory Technology from Indian River Community
College. Tara started working with DBMR in the microbiology group and now works in the biological
screening group. She tests our sample extracts for any type of biological activity. The majority of
our testing these days is on cancer cells. Tara also works on mechanism of action studies of the
active pure compounds that are isolated through biologically guided purification. On this expedition
Tara will be focusing on helping the microbiology group with their isolations as well as helping in
the daily processing of the collected samples.
Nicolas Joannin •
njoannin@hboi.edu
Research Assistant
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Nicolas Joannin obtained his M.S. in Ecology and Population Genetics at the University Pierre et
Marie Curie in Paris, France. He moved to Florida where he worked for the research and development
division of Sea Farms Group (a shrimp aquaculture group). A year and a half later he took his current
position at HBOI where he investigates the genetic potential of marine organisms under the supervision
of Dr. Amy Wright. On this cruise, Mr. Joannin will assist with the collection, preservation and genetic
analysis of deep sea organisms.
Tamara Frank, Ph.D. •
frank@hboi.edu
Co-Principal Investigator, Chief Scientist
Visual Ecology Research - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Dr. Frank is currently the head of the Visual Ecology Department in the division of
Marine Science at HBOI. She is studying how downwelling light controls the behavior
and distribution patterns of midwater animals during the day as well as how it triggers
their vertical migrations at night. Her work combines in situ studies from the Johnson-Sea-Link
submersible to quantify animal distribution patterns with shipboard based laboratory studies
on the photosensitivity of animals brought up with midwater trawl nets. She is particularly
interested in the adaptations of animal eyes to dim light environments, and on this expedition,
will be working on benthic crustaceans retrieved from depths of up to 700 m. She has
participated in over 70 research cruises, both as chief scientist and lucky hitchhiker,
conducting work in the Gulf of Maine, and off the coasts of the Bahamas, Cuba, California,
Hawaii and the Canary Islands. Her educational background includes a B.A. from California
State University, Long Beach, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from University of California,
Santa Barbara, and post-doctoral fellowships from the University of Connecticut Medical
School, Hatfield Marine Science Center in Oregon, and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution.
Eric Warrant, Ph.D.
Professor of Zoology
University of Lund, Sweden
Eric Warrant is a relative newcomer to the world of marine biology,
but his fascination for the strategies that animals use to see in
very dim light has led to an intense interest in the visual world of
the deep sea. Dr. Warrant studied Physics at the University of New
South Wales (Australia) and obtained a PhD in Visual Science from the
Australian National University in 1990. He has been at the Zoology
department of the University of Lund for the past 12 years, and
currently leads a research group that studies the visual performance
of nocturnal animals, particularly insects, with methods that include
electrophysiology, optics, morphology, behaviour and mathematical
modelling. He has recently taken these methods aboard the NOAA
research vessel "Townsend Cromwell" as part of an international
research project investigating the sensory systems of pelagic fishes
and turtles. The success of these cruises has inspired Dr. Warrant to
attempt the same types of experiments during the current exploration,
but this time on deep-sea fishes, an immensely challenging task.
Nicole McMullen •
nmcmullen@hboi.edu
Research Assistant
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Nicole recently completed her bachelor's degree in marine biology at Florida Atlantic
University. While pursuing her undergraduate degree she interned at the Dauphin Island
Sea Lab (DISL) and Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI). At DISL Nicole studied
the effects of eutrophication and predator removal on seagrass ecosystems. During her
senior internship at HBOI she examined the roles of hunger and satiation as proximate
controls of the vertical migrations of mid-water crustaceans. Nicole is now pursuing
her master's degree at FAU under the supervision of Dr. Tammy Frank. Her research will
focus on the visual ecology of crustaceans.
Brian Cousin •
cousin@hboi.edu
Video Production Specialist
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Since 1993, Brian Cousin has been Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution's video
production specialist. He has documented leading-edge scientific research and development
at the institution and on various missions to the Bahamas, the Galapagos archipelago,
the Gulf of Maine and Mexico. While his name is rarely seen in the credits, Brian's video
footage has been included in television documentaries produced around the world.
In addition, Brian has produced award winning video programming for Harbor Branch,
including a 26-minute program entitled "Marine Bioluminescence: Secret Lights in the Sea".
Produced in collaboration with Harbor Branch's Dr. Edith Widder, the video provides an
excellent background on the phenomenon of marine bioluminescence, and features previously
unseen footage captured by Dr. Widder and her colleagues across the country. Brian is a
certified Harbor Branch scuba diver and a member of the American Academy of Underwater
Sciences. His diving experience ranges from cave-diving - perhaps the ultimate in
confined-space diving - to blue water diving - essentially open-ocean diving in a referenceless
enviornment, often likened to space walking. On this mission Brian will be the at-sea web
coordinator and videographer providing still and video images to the NOAA OE web site.
Paula Keener-Chavis
National Education Coordinator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean Exploration
Paula Keener-Chavis (MS, University of Charleston) is the National Education Coordinator for
NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration. She has conducted extensive marine fisheries research off
the southeastern coast of the U.S., sponsored by NOAA, and research off the coast of Belize,
sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. She has published scientific articles on her research
and writes articles for a variety of publications, including marine science curricula and a book
entitled "Of Sand and Sea: Teachings From the Southeastern Shoreline." She served as a member
of The President's Panel on Ocean Exploration and is Past-President (2000-2001) of the National
Marine Educators Association. Paula headed up the team that produced lesson plans and other
educational resources for the Deep East 2001 Expedition. She works with scientists and educators
to produce lesson plans and Professional Development Institutes for Ocean Exploration Expeditions
and heads up other education and outreach initiatives with NOAA's Ocean Exploration Program.
John McDonough
Data Collection
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean Exploration
John McDonough received his Master's degree in environmental science and policy from the Johns Hopkins
University in Washington, DC in 1998, and a B.S. in coastal geomorphology from the University of Maryland
in 1989. He has been a physical scientist with NOAA's National Ocean Service since 1989, where he
developed data and geographic information systems related to coastal and marine environments, and applied
that information to help prepare management plans for marine protected areas. Most recently, Mr. McDonough
has been serving as the project manager for large-scale undersea research expeditions using a variety of
tools and techniques including manned and unmanned submersibles. Specific efforts include the Sustainable
Seas Expeditions, a joint endeavor between NOAA and the National Geographic Society to explore the system
of National Marine Sanctuaries managed by NOAA's National Ocean Service. He is committed to exploring and
learning more about natural systems in marine and coastal areas, providing the data and information required
for effective ecosystem-based management.
Arte Roman
Educational Outreach
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
Arte Roman lives in Orlando, Florida. He currently teaches Marine Science and Biology to 9th-12th graders
at Olympia High School. In 1997, Mr. Roman received his Bachelors degrees in Marine Biology and Ecology
from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL. After that, he served as an intern on the Kissimmee
River Restoration Project before entering the Masters program at the University of Central Florida.
There, he studied marine invertebrates and wrote his thesis on the growth habits of an ascidian (sea squirt)
called Perophora viridis. Mr. Roman loves to teach the odd and fascinating things that he learned
when he was a student. When he isn't teaching, Mr. Roman looks to join research expeditions to gain
experiences that he can bring back to the classroom. His primary role on this expedition is to record
a daily log to document the events of the cruise. This way he can share his first-hand experiences with
students in his classroom or around the world.
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