New Faculty Members at the DISL
 

	Ms. Carrie Dixon

The DISL is pleased to welcome two new faculty members to our growing Sea Lab staff. Ms. Carrie Dixon joins the Discovery Hall Programs as a marine educator. She received her B.S. in Ecology from the University of Georgia in 2003, and is currently working on her M.S. in Environmental Studies from College of Charleston, SC.
Between her undergraduate and graduate years, Ms. Dixon has worked as an instructor at several environmental education centers in North Carolina. “I have always enjoyed working with people of all ages, but I love children in particular. I love being able to get a person interested in science and nature by sharing all of the quirky and wonderful things that can be found in their own backyard,” says Carrie.

“I am also very passionate about getting people to take an interest in the world they live in. Helping anyone to better understand themselves, and their role in the world we live in, is exciting to me. Science education just seemed like the perfect fit,” she states.

Carrie also enjoys the arts, having minored in theater design at school. She is an amateur singer and dancer as well. Carrie will appear on “Wheel of Fortune” this spring as a contestant. We’re certainly glad that fortune has landed her at the Sea Lab to join our family.

Dr. Ruth Carmichael joins our research faculty in University Programs, having most recently been an assistant professor at the University of Maine at Machias. Dr. Carmichael received her Ph.D. and M.S. from The Boston University Marine Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and her B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Growing up a land-locked Midwesterner, Dr. Carmichael viewed the coast as both aesthetically pleasing and something of a mystery. She puts her sleuthing skills to the test as she continues to investigate how human-created change, such as pollution, coastal structures, global climate change, and overfishing affect coastal habitats and species, particularly bivalves and horseshoe crabs.

“I use a variety of approaches to make these assessments. I measure how perturbations affect habitat and food quality for consumers, and then determine the extent to which these effects may be transferred up coastal food webs in terms of change in growth, survival, and physiology. I also employ natural abundance stable isotopes to trace nitrogen and carbon sources from consumers to their food sources and ultimately to nitrogen and carbon sources from land.’
 

	Dr. Ruth Carmichael

As the most recent addition to the research faculty, Dr. Carmichael adds, “I hope to establish a successful research program that will complement the work of current DISL faculty and help meet the needs of the Mobile Bay region. I look forward to integrating my research into ongoing and new educational and community outreach opportunities, particularly with respect to restoration and management of coastal habitats and shellfisheries.”

When not it the lab or in the field, Ruth also enjoys reading and dancing, “although not

Note: When asked our perennial DISL question, what’s your favorite invertebrate, Ms. Dixon responded, “It’s a toss up between ghost crabs and mantis shrimp. I have worked so closely with ghost crabs its impossible not to love the little guys, but mantis shrimp are just so darn cool!”

Dr. Carmichael agonized over this one – “Wow, that is a hard one... all inverts are very cool! Pycnogonids (sea spiders) are pretty interesting and under appreciated, they also are the closest living relative to another favorite of mine, horseshoe crabs. Of course, for gastronomic reasons the more tasty inverts, such as mussels, clams, and scallops, also are among my favorites. As a former advisor once put it, ‘Why study something you don’t eat!?’”