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