Colleen Cavanaugh | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Colleen Cavanaugh in 1992 | |
| Born | 1953 (age 70–71) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | microbiologist |
| Known for | studies of hydrothermal vent ecosystems |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Symbiosis of chemoautotrophic bacteria and marine invertebrates (1985) |
Colleen Marie Cavanaugh is an American academic microbiologist best known for her studies of hydrothermal vent ecosystems.[1] As of 2002, she is the Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and is affiliated with the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.[2] Cavanaugh was the first to propose that the deep-sea giant tube worm, Riftia pachyptila, obtains its food from bacteria living within its cells, an insight which she had as a graduate student at Harvard.[3] Significantly, she made the connection that these chemoautotrophic bacteria were able to play this role through their use of chemosynthesis, the biological oxidation of inorganic compounds (e.g., hydrogen sulfide) to synthesize organic matter from very simple carbon-containing molecules, thus allowing organisms such as the bacteria (and dependent organisms such as tube worms) to exist in deep ocean without sunlight.[4]
- ^ Gaines, Susan; Eglington, Jeffrey; Rullkotter, Jurgen (2009). Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History. Oxford University Press. p. 177. ISBN 9780195176193.
- ^ "Colleen Cavanaugh". Cavanaugh Lab. Harvard University. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ Cromie, William (November 14, 1996). "Microbiologist-Aquanaut Colleen Cavanaugh Receives Tenure". The Harvard University Gazette. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Kirchman, David (2012). Processes in Microbial Ecology. Oxford University Press. p. 268. ISBN 9780199586936.