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Colleen Cavanaugh, Ph.D.,〔(MDIBL Newsletter, Fall 2006 ), MDI Biological Laboratory〕 is a microbiologist and Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology〔() Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology〕〔() Questions for Extreme 2003〕 at Harvard University who has studied hydrothermal vent ecosystems for over 20 years.〔() University of Delaware, Interview November 2004〕 As a graduate student, Cavanaugh was the first to propose that the giant tube worm, ''Riftia pachyptila'', obtains its food from bacteria living within its cells.〔〔(Harvard University Gazette: Microbiologist-Aquanaut Colleen Cavanaugh Receives Tenure )〕 In a process called chemosynthesis, these bacteria use the energy locked within reduced chemicals (e.g., hydrogen sulfide) to synthesize organic matter, allowing organisms such as the giant tube worm to exist on the ocean floor without sunlight.〔〔 ==Early life== Cavanaugh grew up in Detroit, Michigan and knew as early as second grade that she wanted to be a scientist. "In English class you had to write, in science class you didn't," she has said, "So science became my first choice." She began focusing on biology and ecology by the seventh grade and says "I thought about working on the Great Lakes, and decided to major in biology at the University of Michigan."〔 Her life direction was changed in her sophomore year when she heard about a course in marine ecology at the oceanographic center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Cavanaugh's work there involved wading out into chilly waters to study the mating habits of horseshoe crabs but still she "fell in love" with the relaxed camaraderie and exchange of ideas between biologists, geologists, and scientists from other disciplines.〔 Through a series of events Cavanaugh ended up stranded in the Greater Boston area looking for a job as waitress but ended up replacing a last minute dropout in a Boston University undergraduate research program and returned to her work with local horseshoe crabs. She met Phillip Gschwend, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student studying chemical oceanography, and later married him.〔 After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1977, Cavanaugh moved to Cape Cod to work at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. During the next two years, the focus of her attention shifted from Crustacea to bacteria, "creatures that impressed her for their ability to live anywhere". Ready to pursue her education, Cavanaugh applied to several graduate schools and was accepted at her first choice: Harvard.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colleen Cavanaugh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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