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Scientist Spotlight:
Scientist Spotlight:
Dr. Isabel Dove, PhD
Dr. Isabel Dove, PhD
Hometown: Collegeville, PA
College: Colgate University
Graduate school: University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography
Isabel successfully defended her PhD thesis in September 2024. She is pictured here in the Halloween costume she made on board the NBP. She is dressed as the Ekman spiral, an oceanographic phenomenon which describes the net force perpendicular to a wind vector caused by diminishing twisting currents within the water column due to the Coriolis Effect.
In a recent science talk given aboard the NBP, Isabel described how she successfully resurrected "zombie" Chaetoceros diatoms from their resting spore state to their active, vegetative state. A very fitting topic for this time of year! 👻
The following information has been adapted from an interview between Kiley Preheim and Isabel Dove.
Q: What type of scientist do you consider yourself?
A: I consider myself a paleoceanographer, which means I study the ocean in the past and how it relates to climate.
Q: How did you know you wanted to pursue a science degree?
A: To be honest, I liked all my classes so I didn't really know what I wanted to study in college because I liked everything. And I didn't have one stand out. So, I decided to go to a small liberal arts college called Colgate University, which is in rural, Upstate New York. And I chose Colgate mainly because it had over 50 majors and they don't make you declare a major until the end of your sophomore year. So I figured that would give me plenty of time to figure out what I wanted to do.
My first semester there, I was randomly put into a geology class and I just absolutely fell in love with it, so I majored in geology. I spent four years at Colgate and after I graduated I decided I wanted to do more school, more of the work I had done with my advisor who introduced me to diatoms and Antarctic paleoclimate. So I was looking for advisors in grad school who worked with diatoms and paleoclimate or paleoceanography, and I found Becky Robinson at the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography. So I enrolled there as a master's student. And after a year of that, I realized I loved it so much, I wanted to do it even longer. So I switched to a PhD program. In Fall 2024, I defended my PhD. So now I'm finally done with school!
Q: You study diatoms. Can you explain what diatoms are and what makes them special?
A: A "diatom" is a type of phytoplankton, so they're little ocean plants or algae. They live in the surface ocean and just like plants on land, they photosynthesize. So they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Actually 20% of the oxygen in our atmosphere is from diatoms. So you can also think of it as every fifth breath you take is all because of diatoms. So even if you've never heard of them before, they're already impacting your life.
They have these shells and the fancy scientific word for the shell is a frustule. That frustule is basically made of glass -- it's biogenic silica or opal. If you're born in October, opal is your birthstone. I was born in October, so I I think it's a fitting birthstone for me.
Those shells can preserve in sediments, which is the stuff that's at the bottom of the ocean. So what I do is I look at the diatom shells to help reconstruct what has been happening with the ocean and climate over time.
I study mainly the past 11,000 years, which may sound like a long time but other geologists and paleoceanographers go back millions of years.
Corethron pennatum
(Isabel's favorite diatom species)
Q: Why is it important for us to know about the climate and ocean makeup a long time ago?
A: Really good question. We can kind of think of diatoms and their frustules as a little time machine into the past. I think we all know that climate is really rapidly changing now. By looking back into the past, we can better predict what is going to happen with climate in the future.
Q: What does an average work day look like for you?
A: Throughout my PhD, my days have looked different. When I first started it was a lot of taking classes and then in the middle it was a lot of lab work and then at the end it was a lot of writing. That's one of the things I like about doing a PhD -- it's very different and varied. No two days are the same which keeps things interesting and exciting.
Q: College and higher education is super expensive. How did you afford all of your schooling?
If you want to continue past college and do grad school, especially in the sciences -- it's free. Or it should be free. You're getting scammed if you go to grad school for science and it's not free. I was a research assistant, so I got paid to do lab work in Becky's lab and write papers. I was also a teaching assistant, so I got to help teach a geological oceanography class.
Q: What does an average day during this research cruise look like for you?
It's also pretty different day to day. It depends on what stage of the cruise we're in. So right now, I'm just knitting. I'm just sitting around while we're in transit, but once we get onto station and start actually doing our science, it will be a lot busier a lot more work, I'll be doing a lot of filtering and a lot of looking at diatoms under the microscope.
Q: Can we find diatoms in Kansas?
A: I specialize in is marine diatoms, so salt water or ocean diatoms, but there are also freshwater diatoms. I'm sure if you go to a lake in Kansas, you can also find diatoms.
Q: What do you love about being a scientist?
A: I love diatoms. I love sitting at the microscope and looking at them. They're super pretty. I think it's really relaxing and calming, and it's like a different world to just sit at the microscope and see all these diatoms, especially ones from the sediment that are thousands of years old. I think that's just the coolest thing ever. And then I really like that as a scientist you're creating new knowledge. I wanted to do so much school because I love learning and I like get to generate new knowledge.
Q: What are you hoping to get out of this research cruise?
A: One thing I look at the nitrogen isotopic compensation of the diatom shells. So I'm looking at some chemical property within the shells. There are some weird trends that we've noticed and we're trying to come up with explanations for those trends.
We want to know how thick or how much silica are in these diatom shells. Maybe that's influencing the nitrogen isotopes that we're measuring. So I'm hoping that we'll get some answers as to how degree of silicification and nitrogen isotopes are related.
Q: What do you like to do outside of work or school for fun?
A: I knit! Sometimes I combine my knitting and school by knitting patterns inspired by paleoceanographic data. I also knit normal things. I also like reading and watching Netflix.
Links to Isabel's research and more:
Links to Isabel's research and more:
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