An alpine perspective
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Tom Battin in the Austrian Alps. |
For Luxembourger Tom Battin the gently rolling hills around the Stroud Center are a long way from the glacial streams of the Austrian Alps where he did his post-doctoral studies.
But sooner or later any scientist who focuses on stream ecology is bound to cross paths with colleagues from the Stroud Center, considered one of the world's leaders in the field.
That day came sooner than later for Battin when he met Stroud scientists Lou Kaplan and Denis Newbold at a conference of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanology in 1995. The following year he took a six-month position at the Center to help with the "watershed tea" project, among others.
Now, after completing doctoral and post-doctoral studies at the University of Vienna and Innsbruck, he is back at the Center for at least a full year as a visiting staff scientist.
His focus on water grew out of an avid boyhood interest in dragonflies. He traveled around Europe - particularly the Mediterranean - collecting dragonflies and observing their life cycles. He studied zoology at college and his master's thesis at the University of Vienna concerned the "biogeography and systematics of dragonflies."
Battin's concentration narrowed further into the microworld of stream ecosystems. Besides his current research at the Stroud Center, he is studying the biogeochemistry of Mediterranean streams for the European Union.
In particular, his research delves into the microbial communities of streams - the role such communities play in recycling solids in the water.
Microbes coat sedimentary particles in the stream, producing a slimy and slippery layer of what Battin calls "microbial
biofilm."
"I'm very interested," he said, "in how the flow of the water influences the structure - architecture - of these microbial biofilms, and how the structure influences the functioning of the
biofilms."
His current stint at the Stroud Center was made possible through a grant from the National Science Foundation of Austria to do post-doctoral research in the United States for at least a year.
At the same time, he remains involved in the European Union-financed project to study small Mediterranean streams that, Battin said, "are heavily impacted by wastewater."
Battin's year at the Stroud Center ends in October, but, he said, he could extend it for six months or even another full year if necessary.
