DRI adds new faculty to accommodate growth in DEES, CALEM

Accelerated growth in DRI's Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences and Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management means adding new faculty to keep pace.

DEES is a remarkably diverse collection of scientists, with a range of research interests and expertise that defies simple categorization or a single research focus. In broadest terms, DRI's Earth and ecosystem scientists contribute to a greater understanding of the history and processes affecting landscapes, the Earth's surface and its living inhabitants.

Dr. Henry Sun, who joins DRI from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif., feels that fate played a large part in the evolution of his research and work in microbiology—and his new colleagues are thankful it landed him at DRI as an assistant research professor in DEES.

His research interest in endolithic microbes, or organisms living in rocks, is a narrow field, but one being highlighted nationally with NASA's Mars program. Dr. Sun received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Nanjing University, in China, and his Ph.D. from Florida State University .

JPL is well known as an engineering lab with a basic science component. Sun describes the environment there as "engineers who like to work with scientists who go to extreme environments." And Sun is just that kind of scientist. His specialized research area focuses on finding life in the driest, coldest desert on Earth: Antarctica's Dry Valleys, where the environment was considered totally sterile until microbes were found in the rocks.

Sun says the Dry Valleys can be considered the best analog for what Mars is like. "My job is to ask where we can find life," Sun says, "and locate what signals are being given off to indicate there is life. The Mars program is being beefed up right now, and hopefully the next mission will look at life on the planet."

Sun was attracted to DRI because of the possibility of multidisciplinary collaborations, providing new opportunities to grow. His most recent collaboration with a crystallographer, for example, led to the discovery of a new crystalline form of phosphate.

When he is not searching for the smallest forms of life in Antarctica or the Mohave Desert, he is sharpening his skills at home in Las Vegas by playing hide and seek with his three- and six-year old children.

CALEM gears up

CALEM, an interdisciplinary research center with a worldwide focus on land, air and water issues, is gearing up for new projects like the desert terrain studies for the U.S. Army. Field studies, laboratory analysis and monitoring to ensure the reliability of data require an experienced approach, and CALEM is expanding to meet those needs.

Dr. Bryan Stevenson recently joined DEES as a postdoctoral research associate working with CALEM Interim Executive Director Eric McDonald and Assistant Research Professor Paul Verburg. Stevenson received his doctorate in soil science from Colorado State University, working on stable carbon and oxygen isotope relationships in soils.

His research interests include applications of stable isotopes to the soil system, soil-plant-microbial relationships in modern soils and paleosols, pedology, nutrient cycling and disturbance ecology. He recently completed a postdoctoral position in New Zealand. Stevenson will conduct research on U.S. Department of Defense-funded desert ecosystem restoration and a National Science Foundation project combining isotopic analysis and numerical modeling of soil carbonates at the FACE, or Free-Air Carbon Enrichment, site at the Nevada Test Site.

"I enjoy working outdoors and have always been interested in understanding nature," Stevenson says. Good thing, too—he has already realized how diverse the work is, averaging two weeks in the field each month.

—Heather Emmons