Monday, March 21, 2005

WRITER: Philip Lee Williams, 706/542-8501, phil@franklin.uga.edu
SOURCE: Daniela Di Iorio, 706/542-7020, daniela@uga.edu

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PROF RECEIVES EARLY CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

ATHENS, Ga. – Dr. Daniela Di Iorio, an assistant professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia, has been awarded a prestigious Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation.

The five-year award of $553,000 is the highest award given by the NSF to new faculty members and supports early-career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become academic leaders later in their careers.

Di Iorio’s research centers on deep-sea hydrothermal vents, which have fascinated scientists since their discovery in the late 1970s. Her work, among other things, examines the flow and temperature fluctuations in these vents.

“This award will support my work and help us learn more about the evolution of hydrothermal systems and their contributions to the chemical and thermal compositions of mid-ridge ocean environments,” said Di Iorio.

The award drew praise from around campus.

“I am personally delighted that Dr. Di Iorio has won this prestigious award from the National Science Foundation,” said Dr. Garnett S. Stokes, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “Her work sets a high standard for all faculty in the college, and I am pleased that NSF recognizes it.”

Dr. Tim Hollibaugh, head of the department of marine sciences at UGA, also praised Di Iorio’s work.

“One of the unique things about Dr. Di Iorio is that she is a woman in a field [physical oceanography] that is still strongly dominated by men,” said Hollibaugh. “This award will give her the opportunity to share her interest and enthusiasm for her work with female students from high school through graduate school, thereby, we hope, encouraging them to consider going into this field themselves. This is a passion with Daniela.”

This integrated research and education project will focus on the long-term dynamics of hydrothermal vent flow at the Main Endeavour vent field of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, which is in the Pacific Ocean beginning off the coast of northern California and extending to southern Canada.

The project will attract high school Ocean Science Bowl team members, undergraduate and graduate students, and high school teachers, who may participate in a physical science and engineering discipline that will involve instrument development, field experiments and data analysis.

Measurements will be made of the vertical and horizontal flows, together with temperature fluctuations. Until recently, there has been no method available that could provide these measurements simultaneously over an extended period of time and that could provide reliable information without requiring the placement of sensors within the flow field. This will be accomplished by deploying a newly developed acoustic scintillation system (built through collaborations with industry) at an underwater volcanic vent called a “black smoker” within the Main Endeavour vent field.

The measurements will be conducted over an extended period of time so that comparisons of flow and potentially heat flux can be made with independent seismic data, thus testing the hypothesis that vent flow is affected by tectonic motion and/or volcanic eruptions. Earthquakes are likely to lead to changes in hydrothermal discharge rates, but no long-term observations have been made.

“She will be taking the pulse of a hydrothermal vent system located more than a mile below the surface of the ocean, to see how that pulse responds to the stretchings and flexings of the earth itself,” said Hollibaugh. “Her work will provide a high-resolution look at the circulation of hydrothermal fluids in the deep sea, with ramifications for everything from global budgets of heavy metals to the ecology of exotic hydrothermal vent fauna that live balanced between getting stewed by too much super-hot water and starving when the flows are too low.”

Di Iorio received her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She joined the UGA faculty in 1999 and has published book chapters and numerous scholarly articles. She has also spoken at meetings and conferences worldwide.