Heather McCone

2000/01 CEIRP Fellow

Microbiology/Geology

Hometown: Clarence Center, NY

BS, Geology, The College of Wooster

CEIRP Curriculum Project: El Nino and the Southern Oscillation

2000 - 2001 CEIRP Fellow Statement

As an M.S. student, I chose to combine Microbiology and Geology into a field of study called Geomicrobiology. Recently, I have been working on a project related to the natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico, bringing together concepts of geology with the lab work of microbiology. Seeps are where the natural resource below comes into contact with the surface water due to flow through faults. Amazingly, all along these faults, little bacteria were at one time living at temperatures between 80C and 90C! I am examining the populations of microorganisms that live in these faults using core samples taken through the deep sediments by the Department of Energy. I have been using a combination of DNA extraction techniques and anaerobic culturing techniques to learn more about these high temperature oil degraders performing natural bioremediation.