People

Cindy Lee Van Dover

Works at: The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia

Research in the South Pacific: Cindy samples mussel beds near hydrothermal vents, noting which species occurs where and in what kinds of numbers. Over the last decade, she has built up a large data set (mostly from the Mid Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise), which can be used to identify where the animal communities differ and to investigate what barriers or filters prevent species from having world-wide distributions. "In effect, I ask at a community level the same kinds of questions that my colleague Bob Vrijenhoek asks at a genetic level. The two approaches are complementary and bring us together at sea as a team."

Bio snippet: Cindy qualified as a pilot of the deep-diving human-occupied submersible Alvin and served as pilot-in-command of 48 dives before retiring to a career as a scientist in 1991. She is a contra-dancer, a member of a recorder ensemble, a gardener, and is restoring an old Chesapeake Bay waterman's home on the marsh in Guinea Neck, Virginia. Cindy has written several books about the deep sea, including The Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents (2000) and Deep Ocean Journeys (1997)