Dr. Trista J. Vick-Majors
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Michigan Technological University
Dr. Trista Vick-Majors is an Assistant Professor of Ecology and Environmental Sciences in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technological University, where she leads the “Wherever There’s Water” lab. Her research focuses on microbial life in aquatic and extreme environments, and her work has ranged from from hot springs, to some of the most nutrient-poor reaches of Earth’s oceans, to lakes buried half-a-mile beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Microorganisms thrive in places that are inhospitable to humans, and Dr. Vick-Majors’ research is aimed at understanding not only how they thrive on Earth, but how their strategies might translate to life on other worlds. Dr. Vick-Majors is a member of the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access Science Team (SALSA), and she currently serves on the Science Advisory Board for the United States Ice Drilling Program, and the National Academies of Sciences Space Studies Board Committee on Planetary Protection. Prior to joining Michigan Technological University, she was a postdoctoral research scientist at l’Université du Québec à Montréal and at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station. She has participated in six research expeditions to study life permanently ice-covered lakes in the Antarctic. She earned her B.A in Biology from Colorado College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University.
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