Current Group Members
Susan Q. Lang, Associate Scientist & NOSAMS Director
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I like water, rocks, and microbes.
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Maddie Petersen, Ph.D. Candidate
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Maddie came to us from an MS program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where she investigated organic sulfur in Lake Superior. She will be looking at organics in samples from the mid-Cayman Rise and the Marianas forearc.
Jessica Rodgers, Research Technician
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Jessica graduated from the UofSC MSCI program in 2022, and during that time extracted samples from Lost City chimneys for lipid biomarkers to identify carbon sources to microbes. She is now a Research Technician in the lab.
Claire Matta, Undergraduate Researcher
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Claire is a UofSC sophomore majoring in geological sciences and minoring in marine sciences.
Former lab members.......
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Bryan Benitez-Nelson, Research Technician
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Bryan is the guru who keeps things in lab running smoothly, with the help of his handy instrument behavioral modification stick.
Aaron Mau, M.Sc.
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Aaron is a graduate of University of Washington's Oceanography B.S. program. He joined the Lost City cruise to help carry out analysis of dissolved gases. In his M.Sc. he used NMR and isotopes to look at the fate of carbon from vents on the mid-Cayman Rise.
Jessica Frankle, M.Sc.
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Jess was a UofSC 2018 MSCI graduate and participated in the Lost City and Cayman hydrothermal cruises. In her M.Sc. she used the isotopes of radium to constrain residence times of hydrothermal circulation.
J. J. Freier, Undergraduate Researcher
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J.J. is a senior MSCI student. He has been carrying out experiments to see if formate is converted to CO2 by microbes in environments around South Carolina
Malayika Vincent, Research Technician
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Malayika does everything from analyze samples to making sure that they are collected properly in the first place.
Cameron Henderson, Undergraduate researcher
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USC undergraduate researcher. Cameron is a senior MSCI major. He has been testing methods to isolate organic compounds from seawater
Tran Nguyen, M.S. Student
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Tran is a former USC undergraduate and earned her B.S. in Environmental Science. She received her MS in May, 2018 on "Influence of energy availability on the carbon isotopes of methane and biomarkers during hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis" Her research was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta in 2019
Nick Camper, M.S. Student
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Nick came to us from University of West Georgia where he received his B.S. in Geology. He analyzed fluids from the Atlantis Massif to identify hot spots of subsurface microbial activity. He received his M.S. in May, 2018 on "Organic acids and amino acids in serpentinization related fluids from the Atlantis Massif"
Georgia Dahlquist, Ph.D. Candidate
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Georgia received her B.S. from Berea College and her M.S. from Montana Tech. She is looking forward to translating her experiences studying trace metal processes in Yellowstone to upcoming field work in the Lost City Hydrothermal Field.
Katherine Hickok, M.S. Student
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Katie was received her B.S. in Geology from Clemson University. She analayzed organic compounds in rocks from the Atlantis Massif and IODP Expedition 357. She received her M.S. in May, 2017 on "Serpentinization and synthesis: searching for abiotic and biotic non-volatile organic molecules in the subsurface of the Atlantis Massif" and published her work in Organic Geochemistry.
Hannah Park, undergraduate researcher
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Hannah was an MSCI undergraduate and graduated in 2016. She studied changes in nutrients and carbon in the Congaree River, and how both changed during the "1,000 year flood" in 2015. She was also instrumental in testing materials for contamination prior to IODP Expedition 357.
Russel Kruger, undergraduate researcher
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Russel is an undergraduate at Gustavus Adolphus College and carried out a summer REU project in 2015. He used the D/H isotopes of leaf wax lipids from sediment traps as indicators of past precipitation.
Emma Wanamaker​, research technician
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Emma did everything from setting up the lab to collecting field samples to analyzing concentrations and isotopes of organic compounds