The InterRidge Steering Committee is very pleased to announce the awards for the 2009 InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The awards go to Susan Lang, a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), USA, to work at a laboratory in Switzerland, and to Surya Prakash, a Ph.D. candidate at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), India, to conduct research in the USA. The title of Lang'sproject is "Investigating the formation mechanisms and inorganic precursors of formate and acetate in Lost City hydrothermal fluids." Lang will determine the stable carbon isotopes of formate and acetate and the radiocarbon isotopes of formate in Lost City fluids with the objective to: (1) constrain the formation mechanisms of formate and acetate (biological vs. abiological), and (2) determine the inorganic precursor to these species (mantle CO2 vs. seawater bicarbonate). Lang is advised by Dr. Lihini Aluwihare at SIO, and the fellowship will be conducted with Dr. Gretchen Früh-Green at ETH Zürich, Institute for Mineralogy and Petrology.
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Lang received her Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography in 2006 from University of Washington. As an undergraduate, she studied chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
Prakash is our first fellow to be supported through the International Seabed Authority Endowment Fund. The title of Prakash's proposal is "Helium isotope studies of hydrothermal plume over slow spreading Carlsberg Ridge, Indian Ocean." Prakash will analyze helium isotopes in water samples collected in a systematic survey of the Carlsberg Ridge to confirm the existence and source of a hydrothermal plume in this region. Prakash is advised by Dr. K. A. Kamesh Raju at NIO, and the fellowship will be conducted with Dr. John. E. Lupton at NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.
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Prakash graduated in chemistry from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India. He was inspired by the movie "Aliens of the Deep" to explore hydrothermal vents in his graduate student research.
Read here Surya's report on his visit to PMEL, Oregon, USA in 2010 |
Later this year, we will profile our 2009 fellows in our annual Newsletter. Congratulations to both! We would like to extend special thanks to the reviewers for the fellowship proposals. All proposals were reviewed by two topical science reviewers (one a native and the other a non-native English speaker). We would also like to thank the Advisory Panel to the ISA Endowment Fund. For more information about the ISA Endowment Fund, please see: http://www.isa.org.jm/en/efund/fund. For more information on the InterRidge Student and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, please see: http://www.interridge.org/fellowship. The Call for Proposals for the 2010 Fellowships will be released in January 2010, and due in March 2010.
