The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York announced on February 23 that Dr. Alyson Santoro, a faculty member of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Horn Point Laboratory, was among the winners of the 2015 Sloan Research Fellowships. Santoro’s research focuses on archaea—microbes in the ocean about which very little is known.
According to the announcement, “these early-career scholars represent the most promising researchers working today. Their achievements and potential place them among the next generation of scientific leaders in the U.S. and Canada. Since 1955, Sloan Research Fellows have gone on to win 43 Nobel Prizes and numerous other distinguished awards.” The prize provides $50,000 annually for two years to further Santoro’s research.
“We are delighted that Alyson was recognized by the Sloan Foundation for this award. She is a rising star in the field of ocean science and we are proud to have her on the Horn Point faculty,” said Horn Point Laboratory Director Mike Roman.
Santoro’s research focuses on archaea—microbes in the ocean about which very little is known. Their unique status among fundamental biological organisms wasn’t even recognized until 1977. Once thought to live only in “extreme” environments, archaea are now known to be among the most abundant organisms on the planet and vital components of nutrient cycles in the ocean.
Investigating archaea’s contribution to the ocean ecosystem has been especially challenging due to the difficulty growing them in the laboratory setting. That is, until recently, when Santoro’s laboratory developed and described the first laboratory cultures of a type of archaea from the open ocean.
“It excites me that it is a field where people are making fundamental, new discoveries," said Santoro. "Our view of marine microbiology is completely different than it was even ten years ago. It is amazing to me.”
About the fellowship award, she said, “I am honored to be recognized among such an historically esteemed group of scholars, many of whom have gone on to do great things. It is humbling. From a practical perspective, it is wonderful to receive a pot of money to use for flexible, creative research. I hope that my research path will enable me to discover something within the next ten years that no one now knows.”
Santoro credits her scientific curiosity to growing up in the rural environment of Saranac Lake, NY, where she explored the water and forests of the Adirondack mountains. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in Environmental Engineering and Science.
