Rosenberg Institute Seminar Series - Ed Carpenter

Ed Carpenter, Professor of Biology, EOS Center, SFSU

Plastic Earth: A Ticking Time Bomb

Abstract: Micro-plastics now pervade all habitats on Earth. Because these particles pick up toxins, they are a threat to ecosystem and Human health. The seminar will cover history of plastic production, distribution in the oceans and on land and possible effects. Also covered are ways to reduce our use of plastics.

Bio: Dr. Carpenter's research is fairly broad, but centers on phytoplankton ecology. The research has involved ocean acidification effects on a group of calcifying phytoplankton (coccolithophores), ecology of nitrogen fixation by marine planktonic cyanobacteria, biogeochemistry of the Amazon River discharge plume in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, phytoplankton ecology of the San Francisco Bay low salinity zone, and the microbial ecology of glacial melt water streams in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Dr. Carpenter has been awarded the Antarctic medal for his research and service as a National Science Foundation program officer in Antarctica. Recent, ongoing research centers on the dynamics of phytoplankton abundance in San Francisco Bay and the occurrence and environmental forcing factors of toxic phytoplankton blooms around Kotzebue Alaska. This coastal village has ~3000 people, and they depend on local food sources for their sustenance, so these blooms can negatively affect their health and well-being.  He received a doctoral degree Honoris Causa from Stockholm University in Sweden in 2000. In 1964 he received his B.S. degree in Biology at SUNY College at Fredonia, and MS and PhD degrees in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 1967 and 1969, respectively. Dr. Carpenter did postdoctoral research at Woods Hole oceanographic Institution and was a research scientist there from 1969 to 1975, then was a Professor at Stony Brook University until 2000. He has been on the faculty of the Biology Department at San Francisco State University since 2000. He has carried out sabbatical research in Stockholm, Sweden, and Kiel, Warnemuende, and Munich, Germany.