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Beth Orcutt, “Deep Sea Frontiers: What Happens as Humanity Seizes the Seafloor?”
August 9, 2020 @ 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Will your next cell phone or solar panel contain heavy metals from the seafloor? Could strange life in the deep sea contain the genetic blueprint for a new blockbuster drug or industrial enzyme? Join Dr. Beth Orcutt for an introduction to the vast and diverse underbelly of life on Earth found deep in our oceans. Learn how this life benefits humanity, and how the deep sea connects to recommendations of the Maine Climate Council to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
Dr. Orcutt has been a Senior Research Scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences since 2012, where she leads a team to study the weird microscopic life that lives at the bottom of the ocean. For her research, Dr. Orcutt has traveled far and wide: to the bottom of the ocean, exploring underwater hydrothermal vents in remote oceans and oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico; to remote lakes of the Canadian Arctic reachable only by helicopter; and to research labs around the world, including a recent sabbatical in Germany. She was recently awarded the Asahiko Taira Prize for Scientific Research from the American Geophysical Union, the largest international scientific society for Earth science. She received her Ph.D. degree in Marine Sciences from the University of Georgia Athens.