Frederick (Rick) Colwell is a microbial ecologist specializing in subsurface microbiology and geomicrobiology. He is a professor of ocean ecology and biogeochemistry at Oregon State University, and an adjunct and affiliate faculty member at Idaho State University.

Career

Colwell earned his BA in Biology from Whitman College in 1977, his MS in microbiology at

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...

in 1982, and his PhD in microbiology at Virginia Tech in 1986. He completed his postdoctoral research at

Idaho National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. While the laboratory does other research, historically it has been involved with nu ...

in 1988, when he became a scientist there. Colwell joined the faculty of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University in June 2006. He has served as president of the International Society for Subsurface Microbiology since 2008. He is a reviewer for '' Applied and Environmental Microbiology ''and a member of the editorial board of the journal '' Biodegradation''. Colwell is a member of the

Deep Carbon Observatory The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is a global research program designed to transform understanding of carbon's role in Earth. DCO is a community of scientists, including biologists, physicists, geoscientists and chemists, whose work crosses sever ...

’s Deep Life Scientific Steering Committee.

Research

In his research, Colwell uses molecular methods to investigate the rates of microbial activities. He has projects focused on methane hydrates and methane seeps in marine sediments and microbes that precipitate the mineral calcite in aquifers and other subsurface environments. Colwell and marine geologist Martin Fisk, are studying microbial communities within deep volcanic rocks at the Wallula pilot well in eastern Washington state. Carbon dioxide will be injected into the well to test carbon sequestration. Colwell will examine how the microbial communities respond to the carbon dioxide injections and whether will be useful for monitoring and measuring the presence of carbon dioxide. Colwell was part of the North pond exploration in the Atlantic Ocean with Katrina Edwards to examine the microbes living in the rocks and sediments beneath the seafloor.

References

External links

Geomicrobiology: Low life
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colwell, Frederick Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Oregon State University faculty Virginia Tech alumni American microbiologists American ecologists Northern Arizona University alumni