Mike
Burczynski (top
of page)
MBARI Instrumentation Technician
/staff/mikeb/
What
is your role on this cruise?
I'll be running and maintaining a variety of scientific instruments for
measuring physical properties of the ocean. One of these is a CTD rosette
water sampling profiler which measures conductivity, temperature, oxygen,
light, fluorescence, transmissivity as it is lowered from the ship to
depths of up to 6000 meters. This unit can also capture water samples at
different depths. It carries 12 bottles and each one can hold 10 liters.
I'll also be using the underway CTD system which measures some of the same
physical parameters, but it analyzes sea surface water that is being
constantly circulated into ship. There will be several other instrument
packages that I'll be overseeing and making sure they run correctly.
Basically, I run the instruments, process the data, and make sure all the
systems are working properly and accurately.
What
are your primary goals?
To keep all the instruments under my control running smoothly and
accurately. And provide the scientists with the best data that we can.
What
do you expect to find?
Warmer and clearer water.
What
is your favorite/least favorite part of a research cruise?
To me it's the "unknown" that makes these cruises fun. You never
know what new discoveries you are going to find, what problems you will
encounter, what the weather will be like, what wildlife you'll see. My
least favorite part is trying to find someone to take care of my dog,
Byron. It can be a problem on longer cruises. Oh... and getting seasick is
no fun either.
Why
did you decide to become a scientist/engineer/etc.? / How did you become
one?
As a child I grew up in Poland and Italy, where population density and
environmental pollution is a much bigger problem than in the United
States. After moving to the U.S., I remember going to places like
Yellowstone and Yosemite, and other wilderness areas in Washington state
and realizing that places like this don't exist anymore in countries like
Poland. So I wanted to do something with my life that contributed towards
either ecological preservation or solving environmental problems, that's
what steered me towards science.
Carmen
Castro
(top
of page)
Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM-CSIC)
http://www.iim.csic.es/
Zanna
Chase (top
of page)
MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow
What
is your role on this cruise?
I'm going on the return leg from La Paz to Moss Landing. I'll be making
continuous measurements of surface-water iron concentrations using a
chemiluminescence, flow injection analysis (FIA) system. We'll also be
deploying a special CTD-rosette that can get us clean samples from 12
depths. We will analyze these samples on board, using the same type of FIA
system that we use for the mapping. This will tell us about the vertical
distribution of iron.
What
are your primary goals?
To get lots of good data.
What
do you expect to find?
It would be interesting to see some kind of systematic relationship
between iron concentrations and the location of various ocean currents. We
might also see a correlation between surface water iron concentrations and
the width of the continental shelf, or between iron concentrations and
ocean productivity.
What
is your favorite/least favorite part of a research cruise?
It's always fun to be out here actually studying the ocean on the ocean,
rather than back home in the lab or at the computer. I also like the
variety of things there are to do, from operating winches, to doing the
chemistry, to working up the fresh data, and of course seeing new places.
A cruise is a great time to discuss science with other oceanographers, and
to forge new collaborations. My least favorite part is getting seasick. By
the end of a long cruise, I can't wait to get outside, run up a big
mountain, and eat salad.
Why
did you decide to become a scientist/engineer/etc.?
I've always been interested in science, probably because my father is a
scientist. I had a lot of other interests though, and struggled a lot
deciding what to study. In the end I chose science because it was
interesting and I saw there were fields of science, like oceanography,
with a very appealing practical side, where you could also travel and get
outside and do field work.
How
did you become one?
After my bachelor's degree, I just stayed with it through a masters and
doctorate, and that's how I became an oceanographer. I was lucky to have
some great advisors during graduate school, and they really helped me
along and kept me motivated.
Francisco
Chavez (top
of page)
MBARI Senior Scientist
/staff/chfr/
Curt Collins (top
of page)
Naval Postgraduate School
http://www.oc.nps.navy.mil/
Ginger
Elrod (top
of page)
MBARI Research Technician
/staff/elrod/
What
is your role on this cruise?
My main goal on this cruise will be to
determine iron concentrations in seawater using Flow-Injection Anaylsis (FIA).
Surface water iron concentrations will be measured continuously using a
teflon pump on a towed "fish" platform. The vertical
distribution of iron will be determined from discrete samples collected on
our "Trace Metal Clean" Rosette.
What
are your primary goals?
My immediate goal is to keep the FIA instruments running well to
produce quality iron data. The intermediate goal is to understand how iron
concentrations affect and are affected by the biota, as well as
physical and other chemical interactions in this area of the ocean.
Ultimately the goal is to understand how iron, a necessary micronutrient
for phytoplankton, behaves on a global basis, particularly its role
in global climate.
What
do you expect to find?
We expect to see lower concentrations of surface water iron on the
February transit going south from Moss Landing to the Gulf of
California than on the reverse trip in May when the upwelling period
should be in full swing.
What
is your favorite/least favorite part of a research cruise?
My favorite part of research cruises in general is producing data that is
part of "cutting edge science". Participating in the IronEx
experiments was an inspiring and powerfully scary feeling. To see the
clear blue open ocean turn into pea soup after adding iron was amazing. It
was also sad that John Martin was not around to see "The Iron
Hypothesis" proven. Our iron work on the Pt. Lobos CTD cruises is
also showing some similarly exciting stuff.
I
can't deny that my other favorite part of research cruises is getting to
go to new places. Although I've been to Mexico before,
my first time there was on a research cruise. They have also taken me to
Alaska, The Galapagos Islands, The Panama Canal, Tahiti, the
Southern Ocean and Hawaii.
My
least favorite thing is, of course, the long work hours and lack of sleep.
I also like to say that you can tell your spouse and your kids that you
will be back, but cats just don't understand and their little hearts are
broken each time thinking I have deserted them.
Why
did you decide to become a scientist/engineer/etc? How did you become one?
I wanted to be a "Marine Biologist" for as long as I can
remember. I spent every moment I could as a kid on the beach and poking
around tide pools. I took up SCUBA as a teenager. Little did I know I
would end up doing analytical chemistry! The trace elements that we
measure are such an important part of the biological cycle that we like to
call ourselves "Global Biogeochemists." In truth, being a good
chemistry student opened a lot of doors for me and the competition is
minimal!
Steve
Fitzwater (top
of page)
MBARI Senior Research Technician
Gernot
Friederich (top
of page)
MBARI Research Specialist
/staff/frge/
Christy Herren (top
of page)
MBARI Postdoctoral Fellow
Veronica
Lance (top
of page)
Duke University
http://www.duke.edu/
Roman
Marin III
(top
of page)
MBARI Research Technician
/staff/maro/
Baldo Marinovic
(top
of page)
University of California, Santa Cruz
http://www.ucsc.edu/public/
Marcos David Martinez
(top
of page)
CICESE
Tim
Pennington (top
of page)
MBARI Senior Research Technician
/staff/peti/
What
is your role on this cruise?
Scientist
What
are your primary goals?
Document evolution of water properties within the California Undercurrent
as it flows from Baja northwards to Monterey Bay.
What
do you expect to find?
Not sure.
What
is your favorite/least favorite part of a research cruise?
Being away from home and being away from home.
Why
did you decide to become a scientist/engineer/etc.?
When I was 13.
How
did you become one?
By going to 12 years of college.
Josh
Plant (top
of page)
MBARI Research Technician
/staff/jplant/
What
is your role on this cruise?
As
a research technician, I'm here to help out with the scientific operations
on this cruise including collecting water with our trace metal rosette,
measuring iron from these samples, helping to keep the iron analysis
systems up and running, and where ever a hand is needed.
What
do you expect to find?
On
the transit from Monterey down the coast and into the Sea of Cortez we
will be trying to get a better picture of the northward flowing California
Undercurrent and the hydrography of the water column in general. The iron
levels may be helpful in determining if there are regions along the coast
where productivity may be limited by this element.
What
is your favorite/least favorite part of a research cruise?
So
many parts of research cruises are enjoyable: The change of pace and
scenery and going to new places. The diversity of ongoing projects always
keeps life at sea exciting. A BIG plus is having good food cooked for you.
In addition, there is usually neat marine life to see while transiting
from place to place and maybe a fish to catch.
Why
did you decide to become a scientist/engineer/etc? How did you
become one?
Most of my free time has always been spent around the water diving in
it, fishing on it or hiking near it. In high school I had the best
teachers of my life and they really got me excited about science though at
that point I still wanted to be an archaeologist. My high school physics
teacher also taught me how to SCUBA dive which was probably the turning
point.
During
my first year of college I took a great archaeology course about Bronze
Age Greece. Unfortunately the class was a slide show type lecture in a
dark room with comfortable chairs. Needless to say I usually fell asleep.
So that was that for archaeology. My geology and biology courses on the
other hand were pretty exciting so those were the areas I focused on. But
by the end of college I was pretty tired of school so I spent a year as a
commercial urchin diver and a lobster fishing in Maine.
Then
I headed back west to Alaska and fished for crab in the Bering Sea for a
little bit. Eventually I ended up back in my home town of Inverness,
California. I had good timing coming home. I started working as a field
technician on a science project trying to better understand the chemical,
biological, and physical interactions between the ocean and watershed
connecting Tomales Bay. Now this was luck. I was getting paid to drive
boats, dive and collect samples on the bay I grew up around. One of the
project leaders was from Hawaii and he asked me if I was interested in
going back to school. I said yes.
For
4 more years I got to play detective with mud cores, using changes in
stable isotopes and organic compounds to decipher the past land use
history in the watershed. After that I worked as a research diver for
California Dept. of Fish and Game and then as a research technician for
MBARI for the last 5 years. So I guess science always interested me, but I
never had clear direction of where it was taking me. It all just seemed
exciting and fun.
Tarry
Rago (top
of page)
Naval Postgraduate School
http://www.nps.navy.mil/
Erich
Rienecker (top
of page)
MBARI Research Assistant
/staff/erich/
Sonia
Valle Rubio (top
of page)
CICESE
