Free Seminar Will Highlight Remediation of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Wed, 07/13/2011 - 09:08am | By: Martha Duvall
Dr. Terry Hazen, a leading authority on oil biodegradation will deliver a free seminar at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27, in the Caylor Auditorium at The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL).
The presentation will be the third in the biennial Grimes Distinguished Lecturer Series. A reception in GCRL's dining hall will immediately follow the evening program.
Hazen is distinguished scientist and professor in remediation sciences, and co-director of the Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory managed by the University of California. Additionally, he is head of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Dr. Hazen is a leader in applied and environmental microbiology with much of his research focused on bioremediation of wastes at DOE sites. His talk, “Can Mother Nature Take a Punch? Microbes and the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf,” will cover his recent research on the movement and biodegradation of oil at the Deepwater Horizon blowout site.
Hazen holds a B.S. degree with honor from Michigan State University and a master's from Wake Forest University. He received his doctorate from Wake Forest in 1978, where he majored in parasitology and ecology and minored in microbiology and immunology.
He began his research career investigating fish diseases in thermally altered aquatic systems at the DOE's Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Upon graduation, he joined the faculty at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) where he remained until 1987. During his tenure at the university, he graduated 16 Master's degree students and three Ph.D. students, mentored one post- doc and published 49 peer-reviewed papers.
In 1987, Hazen became a scientist at the Savannah River National Laboratory where he remained until moving to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1998. All of his work at UPR and at the two DOE laboratories has been in the field of applied and environmental microbiology and much of it has focused on bioremediation of wastes.
With an illustrious career in applied and environmental microbiology, he is credited with 242 publications, more than 1,300 presentations and five patents. He has served as principle investigator co-principal investigator on more than 70 grants and contracts totaling close to $170 million.
Hazen has received numerous awards, including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Outstanding Lecturer Award in 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy's BER Distinguished Scientist Award in 2005 (one of only four awarded) and Research and Development 100 awards in 1995 and 1996. Hazen is a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Jay Grimes, marine microbiology professor in the Department of Coastal Sciences and former GCRL director, and his wife Beverly, have established the Grimes Distinguished Lecturer Series. They are committed to bringing well-known marine scientists to address topics important to Southern Miss students, faculty and the coast community. The series is supported by the Jay and Beverly Grimes development fund through the Southern Miss Foundation.
The mission of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, Mississippi's marine laboratory, is scientific discovery related to coastal and marine resources, development of new marine technologies, and the education of future scientists and citizens.