Ian Hewson: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
STARTED PAGE
(No difference)

Revision as of 13:38, 11 June 2023

Ian Hewson
Born
Alma materCanberra Grammar School
University of Queensland
University of Southern California
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
Cornell University
ThesisVirus impacts upon marine bacterial and diazotroph assemblage composition (2005)

Ian Hewson is an American biological oceanographer, marine ecologist and Professor of microbiology at Cornell University. He leads the Cornell Marine Mass Mortality Laboratory, where he studies the drives of marine mass mortalities. He is Leader of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Department of Microbiology.

Early life and education

Hewson was born in Canberra, Australia. He went to high school at Canberra Grammar School, where he was in Eddison House.[1] He was an undergraduate student at the University of Queensland, where he studied botany and marine science. His honours research considered benthic microalgae He moved to the University of Southern California for his doctoral research, where he worked on marine environmental biology. His doctoral research explored the impact of viruses on the composition of bacterial communities. During his PhD he mapped the biogeography of taxa around the ocean. After earning his doctorate he moved to the University of California, Santa Cruz to work on nitrogen fixing marine bacteria.

Research and career

In 2008 Hewson joined the Department of Microbiology at Cornell University. Here he has focussed on aquatic virology, and how viruses influence keystone taxa.[2] His research makes use of field surveys, laboratory analysis and computational simulation to understand marine mass mortalities.[3]

He has studied single-stranded DNA virues and looked to understand their role in disease. He has studied sea star wasting disease (SSWD)[4], a condition that impacted starfish from Alaska to Baja California. He looked to understand how viral infection impacts the microbiome of sea stars, and how sea star-associated densovirus (SSaDV)[5][6] caused sea star wasting disease symptoms.[4][7] He found that SSadV did not always correlate with SSWD, and that the wasting would be better known as Asteroid Idiopathic Wasting Syndrome.[8] He exlained that warmer oceans result in the production of excess organic material, which allows bacteria to thrive. This depletes the levels of oxygen available for starfish, which results in puffiness and discolouration.[9][10]

In 2022 he started studying why sea urchins in the Caribbean were becoming unwell. He took samples from healthy and unhealthy sea urchins, and showed that the sick sea urchins had traces of the parasite cilium.[11]

Select publications

Personal life

Hewson is gay and a member of 500 Queer Scientists.[12] He plays ice hockey and is a member of the Madison Gay Hockey Association.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Dr Ian Hewson Class of 1995". cgsalumni.org.au. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  2. ^ "All about Ian…". Cornell Marine Mass Mortality Laboratory. 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  3. ^ "About the CM3L". Cornell Marine Mass Mortality Laboratory. 2021-01-04. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  4. ^ a b "NSF Award Search: Award # 1537111 - Microbial ecology of sea star wasting disease". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  5. ^ Hewson, Ian; Button, Jason B.; Gudenkauf, Brent M.; Miner, Benjamin; Newton, Alisa L.; Gaydos, Joseph K.; Wynne, Janna; Groves, Cathy L.; Hendler, Gordon; Murray, Michael; Fradkin, Steven; Breitbart, Mya; Fahsbender, Elizabeth; Lafferty, Kevin D.; Kilpatrick, A. Marm (2014-12-02). "Densovirus associated with sea-star wasting disease and mass mortality". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (48): 17278–17283. doi:10.1073/pnas.1416625111. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4260605. PMID 25404293.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  6. ^ "Densovirus named top suspect in devastating sea star wasting disease". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  7. ^ Hewson, Ian; Bistolas, Kalia S. I.; Quijano Cardé, Eva M.; Button, Jason B.; Foster, Parker J.; Flanzenbaum, Jacob M.; Kocian, Jan; Lewis, Chaunte K. (2018). "Investigating the Complex Association Between Viral Ecology, Environment, and Northeast Pacific Sea Star Wasting". Frontiers in Marine Science. 5. doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00077/full. ISSN 2296-7745.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  8. ^ "Scientists unravel complex factors of starfish diseases". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  9. ^ "Starfish Could be in Respiratory Distress Due to Warming Ocean, Organic matter". AZoCleantech.com. 2021-01-07. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  10. ^ "Organic matter, bacteria doom sea stars to oxygen depletion". NSF - National Science Foundation. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  11. ^ "Scientists identify 2022 sea urchin killer". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  12. ^ "Ian Hewson". 500 Queer Scientists. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  13. ^ "Ian Hewson – MGHA". Retrieved 2023-06-11.