David Caron Earns Science Fellowship
Photo/Don Milici
Caron is one of 54 scientists elected to the academy this year. Fellows are chosen through a highly selective, peer-review process based on scientific achievements and contributions that have advanced microbiology. Made up of some 2,000 fellows, the American Academy of Microbiology is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology.
“It is a great honor to be recognized by your peers,” said Caron, who is also a member of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. “I’m very pleased.”
A biological oceanographer by training, Caron is a leading expert on the ecology and diversity of protists, the multifarious grouping of microscopic life that includes skeleton-forming diatoms, slime molds, shape-shifting amoebas and the planktonic algae that can cause toxic ocean tides.
Caron’s work has focused on many aspects of protistan biology – from probing the physiology of organisms living in the Antarctic to identifying new species off the Southern California coast and surveying the diversity and abundance of marine protist populations around the world.
“It’s an extremely well-deserved honor,” said Douglas Capone, holder of the Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies and professor of biological sciences in the College who is also a fellow of the academy. “With the application of modern molecular techniques, Dave is defining the cutting edge of research on the microbial ecology of protists.”
Jed Fuhrman, holder of the McCulloch-Crosby Chair in Marine Biology, professor of biological sciences and an academy fellow, nominated Caron.
“Being named a fellow reflects Dave’s cumulative, lifetime contributions to science, especially on the discovery side of things,” Fuhrman said. “Dave has been a pioneer in revealing the biodiversity and significance of marine protists in aquatic ecosystems. He has done important basic research, as well as more applied work, looking at harmful algal blooms and why they’ve become more prevalent in recent years.”
Protists are such a heterogenous group that many scientists suggest a more accurate name for them would be something like “organisms that are neither bacteria, plants, animals nor fungi.” Most are small, single-celled organisms. Unlike bacteria, protist cells contain a nucleus and so are considered eurkaryotes (plants, animals and fungi are also eurkaryotes).
Caron’s research on harmful algal blooms focuses on determining the causes of toxic tides, looking carefully at ecological relationships and environmental conditions that may trigger the events.
His team, using molecular techniques he developed, monitors local coastal waters for new blooms and environmental conditions. He is also part of an interdisciplinary team developing a robotic environmental monitoring system that could quickly alert scientists and public health officials of an impending toxic tide.
He has published more than 130 papers in scientific journals and is the recipient of one of the highest awards in his field, the Seymour Hutner Young Investigator Prize from the Society of Protozoologists. He served as president of the International Society of Protistologists in 2004-05.
Caron has a Ph.D. from the joint program in biological oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He earned an M.S. in oceanography and a B.S. in microbiology from the University of Rhode Island.
He joined the College from the Woods Hole Institution, where he worked as a scientist from 1985 to 1999, eventually holding the Mary Sears Endowed Chair for Excellence in Biological Oceanography.
Caron’s research has taken him from small freshwater ponds in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea and the Antarctic’s Ross Sea. An avid diver, he has participated in more than 24 major research cruises and led studies off Bermuda, Jamaica, Barbados and the Bahamas and at the Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island.
In addition to Fuhrman and Capone, USC scientists previously named AAM fellows include professors Kenneth Nealson and Miriam Susskind of USC College and Bill Costerton of the USC School of Dentistry.
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The Wall Street Journal highlighted the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
KPCC-FM reported that this fall USC will offer Persian language courses for the first time. A $250,000 grant from the Farhang Foundation helped to establish the program. Bruce Zuckerman of the USC Dornsife College said he has many students interested in the Persian language, culture and region. “The Iranian region is one that has great impact on our lives today and has had great impact going back into ancient times,” he said. The story noted that USC and the Farhang Foundation hope to raise more money to create an Iranian studies minor. Payvand also featured the new courses.
American Songwriter ran a Q&A with Christopher Sampson of the USC Thornton School about the school’s Popular Music program, which Sampson founded. He noted that the program has been available as a major in Songwriting since 2009, and has incorporated a diverse range of musical genres. “We have now established a consistent track record of students having professional success to know that the program gets results,” Sampson said. He also highlighted the achievements of Songwriting faculty members Lamont Dozier, Andrea Stolpe and David Poe of the Thornton School.
The Economist featured research by Valter Longo of the USC Davis School finding that short periods of fasting could help cancer patients better tolerate chemotherapy, and may even make treatment more effective. The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported that cancerous tumors are essentially energy hogs. “They need to burn lots of energy just to stay alive,” Longo said. The study was also covered by Irish Independent (Ireland), Magyar Tavirati Iroda (Hungary), Anadolu Ajansi (Turkey), Son Haber (Netherlands), Vietnam+ (Vietnam), Turkish Radio and Television (Turkey) and Romania Libera (Romania).
L.A. Weekly featured research by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which has developed video games based around physical movement for people recovering from strokes or other injuries. The games develop strength in specific body parts. Traditional video games weren’t right for these patients, said the institute’s Belinda Lange. “Often, the fun parts of the game would only be unlocked after a series of other levels, which our patients often couldn’t achieve,” she said. The games are now being tested with physical therapists in three major clinics.
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