Lydia Babcock-Adams

Lydia Babcock-Adams is a third-year chemical oceanography Ph.D. Student in the Joint Program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT/WHOI), working with Dr. Daniel Repeta.  Through a combined BS/MS degree program at the University of Georgia, Lydia received two bachelor’s degrees, one in Chemistry and one in Marine Sciences, and a master’s degree in Marine Sciences. In the Repeta Lab, Lydia studies the organic compounds that bind trace metals in the ocean, specifically looking at the complexation of iron and other bioactive metals.  Just like we need iron in our blood to survive, microbes in the oceans need iron for their cellular processes. Iron concentrations in the ocean are very low, so some microbes make organic compounds, called siderophores, to facilitate the uptake of iron. On the GEOTRACES GP15 cruise Lydia will be taking water samples and processing them on board to extract siderophores from the seawater.  She will analyze the samples back at WHOI after the cruise. The GP15 cruise with be Lydia’s sixth cruise and she is very excited to be aboard the R/V Revelle with other GEOTRACES scientists.