Dr. Marsh at the South Pole
Even Delaware's coldest winter could hardly rival the frigid environments in which Dr. Adam Marsh works. The marine biochemist regularly travels to Antarctica to learn more about the sea life that dwells in its icy waters. The lowest temperature on the planet has been recorded in Antarctica -- at 128.6°F below zero.
Marsh recently joined the faculty at the University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies. As an assistant professor in the college's Marine Biology-Biochemistry Program, he will teach graduate courses in marine biochemistry with special emphasis on the structure an d function of proteins essential to marine life. He also will conduct research on the early life stages of shellfish and finfish in waters ranging from the Antarctic ocean to Delaware Bay.
"In general, I'm working to find out how marine organisms develop in 'extreme,' or harsh, environments, including polar oceans with their freezing temperatures, deep-sea basins with their crushing pressure, and even estuaries such as the Delaware Bay," Marsh says. "You might be surprised that estuaries could be classified as an extreme environment," he notes. "But wide variations in temperature and salinity occur there, and the marine animals that live in them must be able to adapt quickly to the changing conditions in order to survive."
One of Marsh's projects, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), focuses on the Antarctic sea urchin (Sterechinus neumayeri). This animal resembles a pincushion, with long, red spines extending from its round shell. It lives on the seafloor and uses its spines or sucker-tipped tube feet to move about.
Specifically, Marsh is working to find out how the Antarctic sea urchin's embryos are able to develop so well in the extreme cold of the polar sea. The animal's metabolism may provide clues to how organisms grow in other harsh environments.
Marsh earned his Ph.D. in marine science from the University of Maryland. He also has a master's degree in invertebrate zoology and bachelor's degrees in zoology and English literature from the University of South Florida.
His honors include the Lerner-Gray Marine Science Award for Molecular Ecology and an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biotechnology. Additionally, for the past seven years, he has served as an instructor in the NSF course "Biological Adaptations of Antarctic Marine Organisms" at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Marsh's office is in Smith Laboratory at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes. His phone number is (302) 645-4367, and his e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.org. To learn more about his research, please visit his Web site at www.ocean.udel.edu/people/amarsh.
He and his wife, Michelle, and children, Anson and Ella, make their home in Lewes, Delaware.