by Annie Banel, Graduate Student, Evans School of Public Affairs, Canadian Studies Reporter
We are pleased to announce our new affiliated faculty member, Dr. Jody Deming, Walters Endowed Professor, Oceanography and Astrobiology. Dr. Deming served on the committee to establish the interdisciplinary Arctic Minor and she was recently featured in the Future of Ice lecture series. Her lecture, “Living in Sea Ice – It’s a Wonderful Life,” explored the importance of microbes living inside sea ice and their implications for life on other planets.
In the words of one student, “What really blew me away was Jody’s ability to communicate the science in a simple, succinct way. She didn’t feel the need to get into the small details that people might struggle to understand, and did an excellent job of using analogies to help the audience understand what she was talking about.” Another student wrote, “Jody’s presentation surprised me and showed me how little I really know about the biology of the Arctic.” Students had a chance to meet with Dr. Deming during the new cross-college graduate Arctic Seminar when served as a volunteer co-instructor.
Dr. Deming has many wonderful connections to Canada. For example, she holds an honorary doctorate from Université Laval and she serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the University of Manitoba. She is also a reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Canadian funding agencies, and Canadian faculty promotions. She has conducted extensive research in the Arctic and she served as international co-lead of Canada’s flagship International Polar Year project, the Circumpolar Flaw Lead project. Dr. Deming is truly an asset to the academic community and we are honored to have her join the Canadian Studies Center as an affiliated faculty.
Dr. Jody Deming studies the influence of cold-adapted marine microorganisms on biogeochemical cycles in polar and deep-sea ecosystems, their specific adaptations to living in a porous matrix like sea ice or sediments, and the limits of life in ice formations on Earth and possibly elsewhere. She has a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Smith College and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Maryland. She has been with the University of Washington since 1988.