David Caron
USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Toxic tides, beware. USC College professor of biological sciences Dave Caron is taking aim at some of the ocean's tiniest creatures. Known as harmful algal blooms, toxic tides threaten human health, close down fisheries and have been linked to the deaths of sea lions, birds and other marine species.
Yet until scientists determine the causes of these tides, there's no way to prevent or even predict the destructive and often costly events. To find the causes, Caron has devised a new molecular test and eventually hopes to launch a robotic environmental monitoring system.
Caron's work to halt the harmful blooms reflects the mission of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies: to encourage social responsibility by providing an objective source of marine and environmental research.