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InterRidge Fellows
Education and Outreach Update
Debbie Milton
2012 InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellows
In accordance with InterRidge’s mission to encourage and support
young ridge researchers in international, collaborative and
interdisciplinary studies, annual Fellowships of $5000 USD are
awarded to students or postdoctoral researchers, allowing them the
opportunity to work overseas in established laboratories and to
develop partnerships with key scientists in their field of interest. The
past three years has seen the successful establishment of a
partnership between InterRidge and the ISA Endowment Fund,
designed to support early career scientists from developing countries
in collaborative marine scientific research. Further information on
this can be seen at: http://www.interridge.org/isapartnership.
The InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme
continues to develop and reach out to the global community of
early-career ocean scientists. InterRidge acknowledges the continued
support from the ISA Endowment Fund, which has committed a
further $45,000 during 2012-14 to support students from developing
countries. Due to the large number of high-quality proposals
submitted this year, we were able to award four InterRidge-funded
Fellowships, together with three ISA Fellowships. Therefore, seven
awards of $5000 USD each were given to develop young scientists’
careers. The IR Steering Committee thanks all involved in this
programme, in particular the many reviewers.
The IR Steering Committee is pleased to announce that in 2012,
InterRidge Fellowships have been awarded to:
Cole is a PhD student at the National Oceanography Centre,
Southampton, UK, and is supervised by Drs. Rachael James and
Doug Connelly. She will visit both the research labs at LabHorta,
University of the Azores, where she will work with Raul Bettencourt
and Ines Martin, and the University of Nantes, where she will be
sponsored by Richard Cosson. Her proposal is entitled: "When do
essential metals turn toxic? A proteomic study of metal-induced
oxidative stress on the hydrothermal vent-living mussel, Bathymodiolus
azoricus". Cole will examine how the presence of cadmium, a nonessential,
toxic metal, influences the mussel’s ability to tolerate
elevated concentrations of essential metals, iron and copper. The
build-up of metals in key tissues, and the production and activity of
anti-oxidant enzymes will be quantified in response to controlled
metal exposure. This will enhance current understanding of metal
tolerance in these chemically extreme environments.
"I am doing a PhD in hydrothermal vent geochemistry and am eager
to continue to broaden and expand my experience. This InterRidge
Fellowship will give me the opportunity to learn new techniques in
state-of-the-art molecular biochemistry within the unique research
facilities of the University of the Azores and the University of
Nantes. This will contribute crucially to my PhD and open a door
into a new aspect of science with far-reaching applications".
Emanuale Fontana
Catherine Cole
Fontana is a postdoctoral researcher at the Universtità degli Studi di
Milano, working with Paola Tartarotti. He will travel to Williams
College & Williams Mystic, Connecticut, USA, to study with Lisa
Gilbert on a proposal: "Structural and petrophysical analysis of the
lava/dike boundary at intermediate to superfast-spreading ocean
crust: Integration between present-day ocean crust and ophiolites".
This project proposes a comparative analysis of data from Troodos
ophiolites (Cyprus), DSDP/ODP Hole 504B, and ODP/IODP
Hole 1256D. An integration of geophysical, petrographic,
INTERRIDGE NEWS 16 VOL.21, 2012