Trista Vick-Majors is an American Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at
Michigan Tech
Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michiga ...
. She is an
Antarctic biogeochemist and
microbial ecologist, best known for her work showing that microorganisms are present under the
Antarctic ice sheet.
Early life and education
Vick-Majors grew up in
Calhan, Colorado
The Town of Calhan is a Statutory Town located in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 762 at the 2020 United States Census. Calhan is a part of the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Ran ...
and completed her BA in biology at
Colorado College
Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...
in 2003. Vick-Majors spent two years studying the microbial ecology of hot springs at the
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...
and graduated with her MSc from
Montana State University in 2010. Vick-Majors earned her PhD in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University in 2016.
Vick-Majors’ MSc work focused on the responses of
heterotroph
A heterotroph (; ) is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but ...
ic microorganisms to the onset of the
polar night
The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midni ...
in Antarctica, while her PhD focused on microbial ecology and biogeochemistry in Subglacial
Lake Whillans and under the
McMurdo Ice Shelf
The McMurdo Ice Shelf is the portion of the Ross Ice Shelf bounded by McMurdo Sound and Ross Island on the north and Minna Bluff on the south. Studies show this feature has characteristics quite distinct from the Ross Ice Shelf and merits indiv ...
.
Career and impact
Vick-Majors is a biogeochemist and microbial ecologist with interests in carbon biogeochemistry, polar environments, aquatic ecology, and subglacial ecosystems. Vick-Majors began working in the Antarctic in 2008 as part of an
International Polar Year
The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred ...
-funded project to study ecosystem responses to the Antarctic Polar Night – the first expedition of its kind, and has since been involved in Antarctic expeditions to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Subglacial Lake Whillans in West Antarctica, and to the Ross Ice Shelf.
Vick-Majors was part of the first field team (the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research and Drilling project (WISSARD)) to successfully obtain samples from an Antarctic subglacial lake.
Her work with WISSARD showed that microorganisms are present under the Antarctic ice sheet.
Vick-Majors has contributed to the advancement of early career researchers in the polar sciences through her work with the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists and to public education and outreach efforts, and the popular press.
Awards and honours
Vick-Majors was awarded the American Fellowship by the
American Association of University Women in 2014, to support her dissertation work and in recognition of her commitment to helping women and girls through service to her community. Vick-Majors has also been a fellow of the Institute on Ecosystems (2014 and 2015) and the Montana Space Grant Consortium. In 2015, she received the American Society for Microbiology Travel Award ($500) and the Institute on Ecosystems Graduate Research Fellow ($750).
Selected bibliography
*Vick, TJ; Dodsworth, Jeremy A; Costa, KC; Shock, EL; Hedlund, Brian P; (2010) Microbiology and geochemistry of Little Hot Creek, a hot spring environment in the Long Valley Caldera. Geobiology 8(2)140-154
*Christner, Brent C; Priscu, John C; Achberger, Amanda M; Barbante, Carlo; Carter, Sasha P; Christianson, Knut; Michaud, Alexander B; Mikucki, Jill A; Mitchell, Andrew C; Skidmore, Mark L, Vick-Majors, Trista J. (2014) A microbial ecosystem beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet Nature 512,7514:310-313.
*Vick-Majors, Trista J; Priscu, John C; Amaral-Zettler, Linda A (2014) Modular community structure suggests metabolic plasticity during the transition to polar night in ice-covered Antarctic lakes, The ISME Journal 8:4,778-789
References
External links
Trista Vick-Majors's webpage*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vick-Majors, Trista
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American women scientists
American Antarctic scientists
Colorado College alumni
Montana State University alumni
Women Antarctic scientists
Biogeochemists
21st-century American women