Meet the Team

Dr. Joshua Sebree (PI) – Associate Professor, Astrochemistry and Astrobiology

Dr. Sebree specializes in the development of spectroscopic techniques for the understanding of astrobiological analog samples and other non-traditional samples. He is focused on tracing the organic compounds through the cave using portable field instruments.

Wind Cave Science

Dr. Kenneth Elgersma – Associate Professor, Ecology

Dr. Elgersma studies plant-soil interactions and terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycling using empirical and simulation modeling approaches. He is studying the carbon and nutrients in the surface soil for comparison to those found underground.

Dr. Mohammad Iqbal – Professor, Hydrogeologist

Dr. Igbal specializes in water quality, contaminant transport in groundwater, watershed hydrology, and groundwater source investigations by using stable isotopes. He is leading the investigations into determining the composition and source(s) of the water in the subterranean lakes.

Dr. Justin Peters – Assistant Professor, Biochemistry

Dr. Peters is focused on the bacterial and fungus aspects of the Wind Cave microbial mapping project using next-generation sequencing.

Dr. Marek Sliwinski – Associate Professor, Microbiology

Dr. Sliwinksi has an extensive background in culturing difficult-to-grow microbes. He is focused on the archaea aspects of the Wind Cave microbial mapping project using next-generation sequencing.

Francesca Soans – Associate Professor, Digital Media Production

Prof. Soans is a filmmaker whose documentaries have screened at film festivals, art centers and public and cable television in the U.S. and Europe. Prof. Soans facilitates the creation of several science documentaries for the general public.

Coldwater Cave Science Team

Dr. Peter Berendzen – Professor, Evolutionary Genetics

Dr. Berendzen studies the diversification of freshwater fishes. The primary focus of his research is understanding how geologic and climatic processes have shaped the diversity and distribution of fishes in the upper Mississippi River Basin. He is an expert in collecting and utilizing genomic data to address questions about spatial genetic variation in land and riverscapes. He has extensive experience sampling fishes in this region.

Mr. John DeGroote – Director of GeoTREE and Instructor of Geography

Mr. DeGroote has led and collaborated on a wide variety of scientific projects leveraging eospatial technologies with funding from a variety of federal, state, and local sources. The GeoTREE Center has delivered hundreds of terabytes of data over the last decade as a primary data provider of Iowa’s statewide LiDAR data.

Study of Cavers

Dr. Mark Hecimovich – Associate Professor, Athletic Training

Dr. Hecimovich’s primary research focus is on mild traumatic brain injury and more specifically concussion. His research pertinent to this project is the use of eye tracking with video-oculography using real-time eye movement on measures of fixations, saccades, blinks, and pupillary dynamics; the latter potentially being impacted by low light or brain activity/brain oxygenation (measured via fNIRS with Dr. Terence Moriarty) and other environmental differences encountered in a cave environment.

Dr. Terence Moriarty – Assistant Professor, Exercise Physiology

Dr. Moriarty’s research interests lie in measuring brain oxygenation and cognitive function in both healthy and clinical populations. He has also published works using smart-textile garments to track energy expenditure and generate a physiological profile during functional training.