Exploration Team

Amy E. Wright

Amy E. Wright

Research Professor, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University

Amy Wright is a research professor at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University and directs the natural products chemistry group. She is co-chief scientist for the expedition. Her research focuses on the investigation of natural products derived from marine organisms (sponges, ascidians, cnidarians, plants, and microbes) with commercial potential. She has participated in over 40 expeditions and done extensive exploration using submersibles to collect unusual organisms that produce therapeutically useful natural products. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

John Reed

John Reed

Research Professor, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University

John Reed is a Research Professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, and is co-chief scientist on this expedition. He specializes in research and conservation of coral reefs, including deepwater Lophelia and Oculina coral reefs off the southeastern United States and mesophotic coral reefs of the Caribbean, Bahamas, Cuba, and Florida. He has conducted over 60 research expeditions as chief scientist during the past 42 years, visiting 40 countries. John’s research resulted in the establishment of a 2330-square-kilometer (900-square-mile) Oculina Coral Habitat Area of Particular Concern (OHAPC), the first in the world to protect deepwater coral. His research on the deepwater Lophelia reefs (300 to 1,000-meter (984 to 3,280-foot) depths) off the southeastern United States resulted in the protection of 59,570 square kilometers (23,000 square miles) of deepwater coral habitat from North Carolina to south Florida. John’s research on deepwater reefs began 46 years ago when he started at Harbor Branch. He has hundreds of publications, reports, and articles on deepwater coral reef research and biomedical research. John received his B.S. from the University of Miami and M.S., specializing in marine ecology, from Florida Atlantic University in 1975.

Megan Conkling

Megan Conkling

Lab Research Coordinator, Graduate Student, Florida Atlantic University - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Megan Conkling is a lab research coordinator and Ph.D. geosciences student at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) and is part of the Biomedical Research Program. She received a B.S. in Marine Science from Florida Gulf Coast University and an M.S. in Biology from FAU. Her dissertation research focuses on identifying, quantifying, and modeling the effects of climate change on Florida coral reefs. As part of the Sponge Biotechnology research group, she conducts research on the development of sponge cell lines for biomedical and habitat restoration applications. On this expedition, Megan will cryopreserve sponge cells to expand the HBOI Sponge Cell Biobank with deep-sea marine sponges for future research.

Jack Conroy

Jack Conroy

Sea Grant Knauss Fellow, NOAA Ocean Exploration

Jack Conroy is acting as the web coordinator for this expedition. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from William & Mary and defended his doctoral dissertation at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in March 2022. Jack's dissertation research focused on the ecology of Antarctic zooplankton. He spent five field seasons studying the marine ecosystem west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Jack joined NOAA Ocean Exploration as a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow in February 2022 and primarily works on interagency coordination of ocean science.

Photo credit: Aileen Devlin, Virginia Sea Grant

Stephanie Farrington

Stephanie Farrington

Fisheries Biologist III & Benthic Community Restoration Analyst, Technical and Engineering Support Alliance, LLC

Stephanie Farrington is a Fisheries Biologist III & Benthic Community Restoration Analyst with Technical and Engineering Support Alliance, LLC. She has a bachelor’s degree in marine science and biology from the University of Tampa and a master’s in marine biology from what is now Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography.

Stephanie has participated in more than 25 expeditions using remotely operated vehicles and human-occupied vehicles during her time as a Research Scientist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU).

Stephanie will be rejoining HBOI as the Data Manager for this expedition.

Eric Glidden

Eric Glidden

ROV Technician – Undersea Vehicles Program (UVP), University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)

Eric received a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of Maine in 2012. After a few years of teaching, Eric returned to UMaine and got introduced to ROVs as a grad student through NURTEC’s (Northeast Underwater Research, Technology and Education Center) Kraken II system. He completed a number of research cruises with this crew before moving to Wilmington NC and joining the UVP team in 2017. Eric will be assisting with ROV operations during this cruise.

Esther Guzmán

Esther Guzmán

Associate Research Professor, Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research, Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Dr. Esther Guzmán received her B.S. in Molecular Biology from Salem-Teikyo University and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with an emphasis in immunology from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She leads the Cancer Cell Biology Program at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI). Her research focuses on finding marine natural products that have the potential to be novel therapeutics against the over a hundred diseases grouped under the term cancer. These include using marine natural products to prevent cancer formation, decrease inflammation, eliminate existing tumors, reactivate the immune system to fight cancers, stop tumors from spreading to other organs (metastasis) or use as tools to further our understanding of cancer. Dr. Guzmán has funding from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead Coley Program to find marine natural products that selectively induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) in triple negative breast cancer cells grown as spheroids and from the HBOI Foundation to find marine natural products that inhibit unusual signaling pathways that provide nutrients to aggressive tumors. Her duties during this expedition are to help process samples for DNA archiving, microbiology and chemical studies, and assist in vouchering and record keeping. She has participated in at least five prior research expeditions and is excited to be back at sea.

Elizabeth Urban-Gedamke

Elizabeth Urban-Gedamke

Research Technician, Sponge Biotechnology Lab, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University

Elizabeth Urban-Gedamke is a research technician in the Sponge Biotechnology Lab at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She received her B.A. in Marine Science from Rollins College and her M.S. from FAU, during which she successfully cultured marine sponge cells using multiple 3-D culture techniques. She is continuing her research with the Sponge Biotechnology Lab, focusing on scale-up of 3-D culture methods for increased production of biomedically relevant compounds and restoration. During this expedition, Elizabeth will contribute to cryopreservation of cells from deep-sea sponges for the HBOI Sponge Cell Biobank to fuel future research.

Jans van der Heijden

Jans van der Heijden

Graduate Student, Wageningen University

Jans van der Heijden is a Dutch student at Wageningen University (WUR) in the Netherlands where she obtained a B.Sc. in biotechnology, during which she contributed to nutrient medium optimization for culture of deepwater marine sponge cells. Jans is now an M.Sc. student at WUR specializing in medical biotechnology and process technology. Currently, she is working on completing her M.Sc. thesis research in Dr. Shirely Pomponi’s Sponge Biotechnology lab at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, investigating the adaptation of sponge cell cultures to climate change and determining if this will impact bioactive compound production. During Jans’ first research expedition, she will be assisting in cryopreservation of deep-sea sponges for future research.

Jason White

Jason White

ROV Technician – Undersea Vehicles Program (UVP), University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)

Jason is the lead remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilot/technician for the Undersea Vehicles Program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Jason has worked with UVP since 2013 and has been on 50 ROV missions and conducted more than 500 ROV dives. Jason received his B.S. in Marine Science and Meteorology from North Carolina State University in 2008. After graduation he worked for C & C Technologies as a hydrographic surveyor in the Gulf of Mexico. He then worked as a satellite oceanographer in the commercial fishing industry for DigitalGlobe in Herndon, Virginia.

Priscilla Winder

Priscilla Winder

Research Scientist, Natural Products Chemistry

Priscilla Winder is a natural products chemist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she looks at the interesting chemical compounds of deep-sea marine organisms for their potential to treat human diseases. She received her doctoral degree at Florida Atlantic University in 2009. She loves being out at sea and has been on several expeditions throughout Florida and the Caribbean. This will be an exciting trip as she has not been to the Flower Garden Banks and is looking forward to seeing it.