http://www.dri.edu
	Spring 2006

Why does DRI have post-docs?

At DRI, one often hears acronyms or abbreviations that sound more like a foreign language than actual English. Take “post-doc” for example—what does this word mean? Used as a shortened term for “post-doctoral researcher,” a post-doc is someone who completed a Ph.D., but is not yet a full faculty or permanent staff member at an institution. DRI currently has 16 post docs: six in the Division of Hydrologic Sciences (DHS), four in the Division of Earth and Ecosystems Sciences (DEES) and six in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS), and each division is planning to hire more.

Why does DRI hire post-docs? Dr. Kent Hoekman, division director of DAS, said, “We can hire a post-doc to see if he or she would be a good fit at DRI... not everyone is able to adapt to the demands of a soft-money institute.”

Dr. Chris Maples, DRI’s vice-president for research, added, “Hiring post-docs gives them a view of another possible career track—that of a non-traditional, entrepreneurial research academic setting.”

Post-docs also bring fresh perspectives to research at DRI. Dr. Mike Auerbach, DEES division director, notes, “...by definition, they [post-docs] have only recently left their graduate studies, so they tend to be very current with the literature in their discipline, and new hypotheses, analyses, equipment and other newly minted members of their scientific cohort. This translates into a fresh infusion of ideas, contacts and energy.”

At DRI, post-docs also are allowed to write grants and be the principal investigator, or PI, on these grants, something that many academic institutes reserve only for full faculty members. As Dr. John Warwick, DHS division director, points out, “DRI post-docs are truly treated as faculty colleagues.”

To give a feeling of the depth and breadth of the knowledge they bring to DRI, several post-docs from each of the three divisions are highlighted below.

A DHS post-doc primarily working with Dr. Michael Young, Dr. Darren Meadows received his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). His primary research interest is studying mass transport in the vadose zone—the ecologically and agriculturally important zone of soil that lies above the water table.

Meadows remarked, “I very much enjoy the atmosphere at DRI. It has been a great experience working here and collaborating with so many talented people.”

At DRI, Meadows is studying hydrologic and ecologic effects of an organic-based emulsion sprayed onto soil surfaces to chelate, or fix, metals. He is also investigating small-scale soil variability and the potential use of geophysical methods to infer hydraulic properties of arid soils. He is working on the Desert Terrain Characterization Project led by Dr. Eric McDonald, and is collaborating with several DEES faculty members on other projects at DRI.

A DEES post-doc, Dr. Richard Jasoni focuses on plant ecology and physiology. Jasoni mainly works with Dr. Jay Arnone, but collaborates with other researchers in DEES and DHS. With his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, Jasoni is involved in a project at the Nevada Desert Free-Air-Carbon dioxide-Enrichment, or FACE, Facility, working with DRI, UNR and UNLV scientists to investigate responses in a Mojave Desert ecosystem that has been continuously exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for eight years. Jasoni also is involved in water-budget projects involving both DEES and DHS researchers as well as local, state and federal agencies.

Jasoni says, “DRI has an excellent reputation for its quality of research and is recognized worldwide as a leader in scientific research.”

Working mainly with Dr. Vic Etyemezian in DAS, Dr. Ilias Kavouras came to DRI after holding research positions at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development in Greece. Kavouras, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Crete, conducts research into the causes and consequences of atmospheric pollution, focusing on what is in air pollution, its effects on public health, atmospheric chemistry and indoor-air quality.

Kavouras said, “DRI is an established research center in atmospheric sciences with tremendous laboratory facilities and data-analysis capabilities and well-known scientists...this was an opportunity to work in a research institute like DRI, interact with the scientists and gain knowledge, skills and experience.”

Kavouras’ current projects include a Western Regional Air Partnership study to understand the causes of dust-related haze in areas of the western U.S. and a Clark County-funded study to investigate ozone formation in the greater Las Vegas area.

Coming to DRI after finishing his Ph.D. at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, DHS post-doc Dr. Sam Earman uses natural tracers (major ions, trace elements, stable and radio isotopes) to understand how groundwater is recharged in mountain areas and flows from mountains to basins, how much recharge is from snowmelt and what impact climate change might have on recharge rates. Earman is involved in the Basin and Range carbonate aquifer system study (BARCASS), a joint U.S. Geological Survey-DRI project examining groundwater resources in Nevada’s Lincoln and White Pine counties. Working with Ron Hershey, Dr. Jim Thomas and Dr. Dave Decker, all from DRI, Earman also is involved in carbon-14 dating of groundwater around Yucca Mountain. While obtaining his master’s degree from UNLV, Earman worked at DRI.

From that experience, Earman knew DRI was a good place to work, adding, “DRI offers more opportunity for post-docs to work on establishing their own research program than most other institutions.”

With his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, Dr. Joe Grzymski decided to come to DRI after meeting Dr. Alison Murray in Antarctica. Grzymski now works with Murray in DEES and is very interested in extremophiles—organisms that live at the extreme ends of life tolerances. Recently, he has been working on how adaptations to extreme environments are reflected in DNA and amino-acid sequences of microbes.

Grzymski said, “This work involves a combination of microbiology, genomics, bioinformatics and, obviously, an incredible and fascinating field-research experience!”

Two of Grzymski’s current projects in Antarctica focus on life in extreme environments, one examining genomic signatures and gene expressions of cold-adapted organisms collected from coastal waters off the Antarctic peninsula. Grzymski is collaborating with scientists from the U.S. and New Zealand on another Antarctic project at the opposite life extreme: looking at microbial diversity in thermal fields on top of the volcanic Mount Erebus and in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

DAS post-docs Dr. David Sodeman and Dr. Prakash Doraiswamy both work primarily with Dr. Judith Chow and Dr. John Watson on air-quality studies. Current projects that both Sodeman and Doraiswamy are involved in include generating and evaluating different sources of carbon in a standardized environment, analyzing metals collected on filters and how filter properties and mass loading can affect these analyses. Sodeman, who is interested in particulate matter in air pollution, says he came to DRI after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in part because of DRI’s reputation within the scientific community. He also is involved in a project to measure emissions from diesel sources, which ultimately will be used to estimate the amount of pollutants being emitted from military sources powered by diesel engines.

Doraiswamy received undergraduate and master’s degrees from Anna University, India, and his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee before coming to DRI. Currently involved in a variety of projects at DRI involving air pollution, Doraiswamy wants to improve understanding of ambient air quality and to apply that knowledge to help understand and combat air pollution around the world.

Doraiswamy said, “DRI is internationally renowned for its research in the air-quality field...I hope to collaborate and conduct research on air quality in developing countries and provide useful information that will help policy groups in those countries.”

DEES post-doc Dr. Mark Sweeney is interested in wind-blown sediments: how and where they form, how they get into the air, how they are transported and how they settle out of the air. Also working with researchers in DAS on a regular basis, including Dr. Jack Gillies and Dr. Vic Etyemezian, Sweeney arrived at DRI after completing his Ph.D. in geology at Washington State University.

Sweeney says he decided to do a DRI post-doc because “I could not pass up such an amazing opportunity to work on multidisciplinary, applied research related to wind-blown sediments and desert geomorphology.”

Working with Dr. Eric McDonald on the Desert Terrain Forecasting project, Sweeney is assessing how landform and soil type affect wind erosion in desert environments with a goal of determining the important conditions—natural or man-made—for dust emissions. Sweeney also is involved in DRI’s PI-SWERL (Portable In-Situ Wind Erosion Lab), used to assess dust potential of desert sediments and soils.