RESEARCHER BIOS
Marsh J. Youngbluth, Ph.D. - Principle Investigator (HBOI)
Charles Jacoby, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist (University of Florida)
Per. R. Flood, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist (University of Bergen, Norway)
Francesc Pages, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist (Institute of Marine Science, Spain)
Franz Ulblein, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist (University of Bergen, Norway)
David Shale, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist
Ulf Bamstedt, Ph.D. - Visiting Scientist (Umea Marine Sciences Centre)
Calle Stangenberg - Laboratory Engineer (Umea Marine Sciences Centre)
Jessica Frost-Fajans - HBOI Research Assistant
Celeste Mosher - HBOI Research Assistant
Brian Ortman - Graduate student (University of New Hampshire)
Ebba Olsson - Graduate student (University of Lund, Sweden)
Sofie Backman - Graduate student (University of Kalmar, Sweden)
Marsh J. Youngbluth, Ph.D. •
youngbluth@hboi.edu
Dr. Marsh Youngbluth received his Master's degree in Zoology in 1966 from
the University of Hawaii, and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1972 from Stanford
University. He is a Senior Scientist with the Division of Marine Science at
Harbor Branch Oceanographic institution. He has served as a visiting
scientist at the University of Bergen, Norway, the Japanese Center for
Promotion of Science, and National Center for Scientific Research in France.
Dr. Youngbluth has also served as NSF Biological Oceanography Program
Director, and as Program manager for the NOAA National Undersea Research
Program.
Dr. Youngbluth's research in the field of biological oceanography is currently focused
on in situ investigations of mesopelagic zooplankton, particularly gelatinous fauna.
With respect to siphonophores and medusae, Dr. Youngbluth is interested in their ecological
roles as predators in deep-water coastal regimes. Other active projects include studies of
large appendicularians as mediators of particle flux and transport in midwater and benthic
boundary habitats.
Much of Dr. Youngbluth's work employs the Harbor Branch JOHNSON SEA-LINK
research submersibles. A firm believer in employing "the right tools for the
job," Dr. Youngbluth continues to utilize innovative technologies in the
ongoing exploration of the mid-ocean realm.
Charles Jacoby, Ph.D. •
cajacoby@ufl.edu
Dr. Chuck Jacoby received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Biology from Illinois State
University in 1974 and 1976, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford
University in 1980. Since then, he has held research positions at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution, the University of Queensland in Australia, and the University of Auckland in
New Zealand. Dr. Jacoby joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
in Australia, where he led research teams for a decade and provided expert advice in four
multi-million dollar, multidisciplinary, environmental studies. Dr. Jacoby is currently an
estuarine and coastal specialist in the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the
University of Florida.
Dr. Jacoby has investigated estuarine, coastal and deepwater marine systems in the tropics,
subtropics and temperate zones of the United States, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand.
His scientific pursuits have appeared in peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on sediment
porewater, water quality, benthic microalgae, seagrasses, saltmarshes, zooplankton, meiofauna,
macroinvertebrates and fishes.
Dr. Jacoby has collaborated with Dr. Youngbluth since 1980. They have conducted studies of
gelatinous zooplankton, particle flux and demersal zooplankton. Dr. Jacoby plans to continue
ecological work on gelatinous zooplankton to quantify their roles in offshore and inshore
ecosystems.
Francesc Pages, Ph.D. •
fpages@icm.csic.es
Dr Francesc Pages received his doctoral degree Biology (Ecology) from the University of
Barcelona (1991). Subsequently, he had postdoctoral appointments at the Alfred-Wegener
Institute for Polar Biology in Bremerhaven; Germany and the Seto Marine Biological
Laboratory, University of Kyoto, Japan. He is currently a Regular Scientist at the
Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, Spain. Francesc is a world-renowned expert
on the ecology and taxonomy of gelatinous mesozooplankton, especially siphonophores,
ctenophores and medusae, in shallow and deep-water environments. He has extensive sea-going
research experience in the Benguela Current off Western Africa, the Mediterranean Sea,
the Humboldt Current of Peru, and the Weddell Sea of the Southern Ocean. His interests
include: spatio-temporal distributions of gelatinous fauna in relation to water masses and
physical factors; trophodynamics and predatory impact of planktonic cnidarians on other
zooplankton populations; and symbiotic associations involving gelatinous zooplankton. He
is currently studying how El Nino 1997-98 affected the gelatinous zooplankton in an upwelling
area off northern Chile.
Per. R. Flood, M.D., Ph.D. •
per.r.flood@bathybiologica.no
Per graduated from the Medical School at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1966 and obtained his doctoral
degree in 1968. He served as Professor of ultrastructural research at the University's Institute of Anatomy
from 1966 to 1992, and as Professor of Zoology at the same University from 1992 to 1997. Currently, he is
principal research scientist for Bathybiologica A/S. For many years Per studied the neuro-muscular systems
of lower vertebrate and chordate animals. Later, he has made significant contributions to the understanding of
ascidian and appendicularian feeding biology. In a 1992 publication in Nature, Per and colleagues documented the
ability of appendicularians to filter colloid-sized dissolved matter from seawater, strongly suggesting that the
animals may be able to use dissolved organic compounds as a food resource. Per co-authored a chapter on the
structure and function of appendicularian houses, and a second chapter on appendicularian bioluminescence in
a 1998 volume entitled The Biology of Pelagic Tunicates. Currently, he is engaged in research on bioluminescence
in a wide range of planktonic animals, including appendicularians, cnidarians, molluscs, crustaceans, and polychaetes.
Franz Uiblein, Ph.D. •
franz.uiblein@imr.no
Franz is a Principal Scientist at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway and Guest Professor
and associated lecturer at the University of Salzburg, Austria. He received is academic training at the
University of Vienna, and was awarded his doctoral degree in 1989. He has had postdoctoral and research
fellow appointments at the University of Hamburg, Germany, the Laboratoire Souterrain, CNRS, France,
and the Konrad-Lorenz Institute of Comparative Behavioural Research, Vienna, Austria. He served as Curator
of Fishes at the Natural History Museum and Research Institute Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Germany. Currently
Franz has several responsibilities in the MAR-ECO project (www.mar-eco.no). He is investigating deep-water
macrofauna of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is further involved in ongoing studies of the bathypelagic fish fauna
of the Canary Islands and the eastern Central Atlantic. Franz also supervises several masters candidates and
a PhD student. His research has focused on comparative behavioral, morphological, and community investigations
of marine fishes within shallow, slope and mesopelagic environments in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the
central and northern Atlantic, and the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean.
David Shale, Ph.D. •
david.shale@virgin.net
David received his PhD from the University of Reading in 1973 for ecological invesigations of
prosobranch veliger larvae. He worked at the Instiute of Oceanographic Sciences in the UK for 8 years
and participated on many oceanographic cruises aboard the RRS Discovery, working mainly in the North
Atlantic ocean. He studied neuston and pelagic molluscs and worked on the development of nets to sample
deep-sea zooplankton and nekton.
In 1979 he left full-time research to make wildlife films for television. He has worked mainly for the BBC
Natural History Unit and has contributed to over 40 wildlife documentaries including Land of the Tiger, Alien
Empire and most recently "Live from the Abyss" and "The Blue Planet" for which he and other members of
the team were awarded a BAFTA. His photographs have been used to illustrate books and magazines.
Jessica Frost-Fajans •
jfrost-fajans@hboi.edu
Jessica received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Science from the University of
Florida (UF) in 2001 and completed a Master of Science Degree in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
from UF in 2003. The title of her thesis was "The Ecology of Lake Griffin, a Hypereutrophic
Cyanobacteria-Dominated Lake in Central Florida, USA". Jessica earned the Best Student Paper
award at the North American Lake Management Society Symposium (2003). Her interests are
marine biology, aquaculture, freshwater phycology, and biomedical technology. During this cruise
she will work with Marsh Youngbluth to measure excretion rates of gelatinous zooplankton and to
assist with ongoing studies of predation by physonect siphonophores.
Celeste Mosher •
celestemosher@yahoo.com
Celeste graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands in 2002 with a B.S. in Biology. During her
undergraduate career she conducted behavioral, ecological and physiological studies of marine opisthobranchs.
She has also participated in several research cruises assisting with physical oceanographic explorations of the
passages between the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean and assisted with investigations of an underwater
volcano, Kick 'Em Jenny, near Grenada. She is eager to study pelagic fauna in the deep sea and aims to use
the experience to shape her future research endeavors. On this cruise she will work as a Research Assistant
with Marsh Youngbluth.
Ulf Bamstedt, Ph.D. •
ulf.bamstedt@eg.umu.se
Ulf is professor in marine sciences at the University of Umea, Sweden and director of Umea Marine
Sciences Centre (UMSC) in the brackish Gulf of Bothnia. His main experience is from more marine environments,
especially the ecosystems of Norwegian fjords, where he has studied deepwater macroplankton communities.
Currently, Ulf is coordinator for the EU-funded project EUROGEL, involving nine different European partners.
His primary interest during the cruise will be to quantify trophic interactions in the planktonic food webs of the
Gulf of Maine and the deep water canyons along the southern margin of Georges Bank.
Calle Stangenberg •
chs@umf.umu.se
Calle is a laboratory engineer at UMSC in Umea, Sweden where he collaborates with professor Ulf Bamstedt.
He conducts chemical and biological analyses within the environmental monitoring program in the Gulf of Bothnia.
Calle also assists in other research projects, e.g., the chemical defenses of diatoms.
Brian Ortman
Brian Ortman is a Ph.D. student at the University of New Hampshire under the direction of Dr. Ann
Bucklin. Brian received his Bachelor of Science degree (Marine Biology) in 2000 and a Master of
Science (Biological Sciences) in 2003 from the University of Southern Mississippi. Currently his
research pursuits are two-fold. First, he is looking for molecular characters that can be used to
identify gelatinous zooplankton at the species level. Secondly, he plans to apply population genetic
techniques to study interrelationships between gelatinous zooplankton populations in order to
determine the causes and consequences of episodic blooms of these fauna.
Ebba Olsson •
ebba.olsson.938@student.lu.se
Ebba is a graduate student from the University of Lund, Sweden, presently involved in a graduate program
at the UMSC. She will be working on her master's thesis in marine biology during the cruise, with professor
Ulf Bamstedt as supervisor. Ebba wants to pursue a career in marine ecology and aquaculture. Her research
project will focus on the trophic ecology of a hyperiid amphipod, Themisto compressa. She will describe its
vertical distribution, relative abundance and diet over diel periods.
Sofie Backman
Sofie comes from the University of Kalmar, Sweden, and has joined the UMSC group for a Master's thesis
with professor Ulf Bamstedt as supervisor. She is particularly interested in biological oceanography. Sofie will
also conduct research on Themisto compressa, specifically its predatory behavior on copepods in light and dark
conditions. In addition, she will estimate energy utilization by measuring respiration and excretion rates.