Current Research

South African Ultradeep Mines: Long Term Sites for Interdisiplinary Studies (LSLIS) into the Extreme Envrionment of the Deep Subsurface.

Recent investigations have identified microbial communities in various environments down to 3.2 kilometers below the surface (kmbls.). Due to the expense of obtaining core samples, there are only a hand full of deep microbial samples from the continental crust (>0.5 kmbls.). The NSF's Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn) program (managed by Princeton University) provides the resources to turn ultradeep mines in South Africa into long-term Sites for Interdisciplinary studies into subsurface microbiology.The LExEn research program explores the relationships between organisms and the environments within which they exist, with strong emphasis upon life-supporting environments that exist near the extremes of planetary conditions.

The University of Tennessee (UT) Center for Environmental Biotechnology administers the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) called "Biogeochemical Educational Experiences - South Africa" (BEE-SA).  Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), BEE-SA brings together U.S. and South African students and faculty mentors in South Africa to examine the microbial life forms that exist in the deepest mines in the world. BEE-SA is an outgrowth of NSF-funded research and previous week-long workshops that have been taking place for the past four years under the NFS's Life in Extreme Environments Program (LExEn).  

Content for this page courtesy of: REU site, NSF's Life in Extreme Environments(LExEn) site, and the Witwatersrand Deep Microbiology Project site.