Samantha Joye
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Samantha "Mandy" Joye is an American oceanographer who is well known for her work studying the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...
. She is a professor (Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences) at the
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
in the Department of Marine Sciences. Joye has made fundamental contributions in ocean biogeochemistry and microbial ecology, and is also regularly called upon by scientific and policy agencies as well as the media for expert commentary on ocean ecology. She was the expedition scientist and a lead science advisor for ''The Deep'' episode, part of the BBC's
Blue Planet II ''Blue Planet II'' is a 2017 British nature documentary series on marine life produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC America, Tencent, WDR, France Télévisions and CCTV-9 in partnership with The Open Universit ...
, and is featured in production videos including ''Brine Pools: Exploring an Alien World for Blue Planet II'' and ''Future of the Oceans''.  She led the “Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas in the Gulf” research consortium between 2014 and 2020 and conducts research to understand relationships between
biogeochemical cycle A biogeochemical cycle, or more generally a cycle of matter, is the movement and transformation of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earth's crust. Major biogeochemical cycles include the carbon cyc ...
s (e.g. of
hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...
s), microbial activity, and environmental factors in many diverse ocean environments.


Early life and education

Joye was born in
Laurinburg, North Carolina Laurinburg is a city in and the county seat of Scotland County, North Carolina, United States. Located in southern North Carolina near the South Carolina border, Laurinburg is southwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina, Fayetteville and is home t ...
. She grew up in a small town along the North/South Carolina border. She worked on her father's crop farm, and in the summer, would often visit
Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the East Coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as the " Grand Strand” in the northeastern part of the state. It ...
. She graduated as valedictorian of her class at Marlboro Academy in 1983. In an interview with '' Nature Research Microbiology'', she said that her love for the ocean was sparked at a young age during the weeks she spent each summer exploring the
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
coast with her family. After receiving a microscope for a birthday present when she was 9, she became interested in microbiology. She enrolled at
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...
as a pre-med / biology major, with aspirations of being a heart surgeon. While at university, she joined
Kappa Alpha Theta Kappa Alpha Theta (), commonly referred to simply as Theta, is an international Fraternities and sororities, sorority founded on January 27, 1870, at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. It was the first Greek-letter fraternity established ...
. In her junior year, she took an elective course in marine science, and switched majors to
oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...
. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1987, a Master of Science in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences in 1993.


Post-graduate and academic career

Known as “Mandy” to her friends and colleagues, Joye joined the faculty at the University of Georgia in 1997 after a short stint at
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
, where she was an assistant professor in oceanography from 1995 to 1997. Prior to serving as an assistant professor at Texas A&M, she was a post doc at the Romberg Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University, in Tiburon, CA (1993–1995). Joye has authored 165 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and 16 peer-reviewed book chapters on topics including nearshore carbon and nitrogen cycling and geobiology of deep sea extreme environments. She has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of biogeochemistry and microbial ecology in marine environments, with a number of transformative advancements that led to high-profile publications. Her work has revealed unexpected connectivity between elemental cycles, unanticipated feedbacks between geological, elemental and microbial dynamics, and fundamental controls on microbial populations and their activity.


Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

On April 20, 2010, the ''
Deepwater Horizon ''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, Dynamic positioning, dynamically positioned, Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible offshore drilling Oil platform, rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, ...
'' drilling platform suffered a loss of well control that resulted in a large explosion and fire, killing eleven men. Two days later, on April 22, 2010, the drilling platform sank, severing the riser pipe at the seabed and initiating an uncontrolled discharge of oil and gas from the broken wellhead. Joye began studying methane and hydrocarbon dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico in 1994, putting her in a strong position to contribute to the scientific response efforts during the 2010
Deepwater Horizon explosion On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire occurred on the ''Deepwater Horizon'' semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about southea ...
. Joye was a member of the shore-based scientist team in the first academic expedition in response to the oil spill on board the R/V Pelican (May 5, 2010) that was led by Arne Diercks and Vernon Asper. She was the chief scientist on the second academic research expedition on board the F.G. Walton Smith, which sailed in late May 2010. Work conducted on the R/V Pelican expedition led to the discovery of deepwater oil plumes, hydrocarbon rich layers in the water column that were neutrally buoyant above the seafloor but well below the surface (at about 1050 m below the surface; about 450 m above the bottom). This finding was very controversial and was received initially with a great deal of skepticism. During the F.G. Walton Smith expedition, National Public Radio ran a story about the deepwater plumes that garnered more national attention. After the expedition, Joye testified before Congress in a hearing before the House Energy and Environment Committee to share evidence that the deepwater plumes did, in fact, exist. Shortly thereafter, the finding was confirmed by
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...
, leading to an effort to quantify the fate of the hydrocarbons hidden deep beneath the water's surface as part of the
Natural Resources Damage Assessment The Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is a program office of the National Ocean Service and a natural resource trustee that protects the coastal environment from oil and hazardous material releases and restores damage caused by such relea ...
. Several months later, in mid-August 2010, Joye embarked on another mission to attempt to explore the fate of discharged oil and gas. On that expedition, Joye reported another controversial finding: the discovery of recently deposited oil-rich layers on the seabed, suggesting that some of the Deepwater Horizon oil may have been removed via sedimentation and was on the seabed. She returned to the area in late November 2010 with the research submersible ALVIN to dive to the seafloor and obtain a firsthand view of the situation. While this finding was also greeted initially with some degree of skepticism, it was ultimately proven correct. The discovery of oil sedimentation as a fate for discharged oil was immensely important. This event had a very negative effect on benthic fauna, including
infauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...
and long-lived cold water coral, meaning that oil sedimentation represents a long-term impact on the benthic ecosystem. Joye's role in the Deepwater Horizon offshore scientific response transitioned into a leading role in the post spill assessment. She was the associate director of science of the first “Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas in the Gulf” (ECOGIG) research consortium and the project director for the second program, “Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas in the Gulf-2”. She continues to lead ECOGIG and her research is still tracking the impacts and fate of hydrocarbons derived from the Deepwater Horizon incident. She is also conducting studies of natural hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf and elsewhere to foster advances in understanding how microbial populations process hydrocarbons.


Press coverage of her work

Joye's research on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill received extensive media coverage and she continues to be a source for the media regarding the microbiological processing of hydrocarbons in the environment, the dynamics of extreme environments, and general oceanography. She has been interviewed, quoted, or featured in numerous news stories about her research in the Gulf of Mexico, including interviews by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Discover, Science and Nature. Joye's media appearances helped educate the media and general public about unique features of the Deepwater Horizon, including the deepwater plumes, marine oil snow and oil sedimentation, and the application of chemical dispersants, as well as highlighting the valuable
ecosystem service Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from ecosystems. The interconnected living and non-living components of the natural environment offer benefits such as pollination of crops, clean air and water, decomposition of wast ...
s provided by the Gulf's deepwater ecosystems. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an enormous environmental perturbation but it was also an opportunity to teach the public about the Gulf Ecosystem and the ocean in general. Joye's oil spill research was the topic of two UGA-produced documentaries (Black and Blue: Beneath the Gulf Oil Disaster and Atlantis Revealed: Where the Oil Went). Black and Blue won a regional Emmy award. Her work was highlighted in the fall 2010 issue of the Georgia Magazine and the winter 2015 issue of the Georgia Magazine. Joye was featured in oil spill documentaries produced by National Geographic, Animal Planet, the CBC, and the BBC and was a major character in a book on the oil spill (Black Tide, authored by Antonia Juhasz and published in April 2011). As of June 2024, Joye's efforts in researching the Gulf of California's hydrothermal vents with her team resulted in
The Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...
featuring them in their Ocean Week conference for their discoveries in relation to the alterations of the vents. A BBC documentary will also feature video from their research.


Advocacy

Joye has been involved in ocean education and outreach and advocacy work, but her advocacy efforts increased significantly after she became engaged as a scientific responder during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Locally and regionally, through the ECOGIG program, Joye initiated the “Science at the Stadium” program, which evolved into the “Ocean Discovery Zone”. The “Ocean Discovery Zone” portable platform has helped educate students and the general public in Georgia and up and down the East coast about the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and ocean science in general Nationally and internationally, Joye has held educational events to celebrate World Oceans Day and frequently speaks at EarthX (formerly Earth Day Texas). In 2015, she began working with
BBC Earth BBC Earth is a brand used by BBC Studios since 2009 to market and distribute the BBC's natural history content to countries other than the United Kingdom. BBC Studios is the commercial arm of the public service broadcaster. BBC Earth commercia ...
and OceanX Media, formerly Alucia Productions, on the deep ocean episode of Blue Planet 2. Joye was the expedition scientist and a lead science advisor for ''The Deep'' episode of Blue Planet II and is featured in a number of digital shorts about the ''Future of the Oceans'' and ''Brine Pools: Exploring an Alien World'' for Blue Planet II. One of the shorts is a profile of Joye, describing how she became an oceanographer and the things that keep her excited about working in the deep sea (''Searching for Cures in the Deep Sea''). Joye enjoys sharing her story with others in the hope of inspiring young women to engage in science careers and to motivate the public to learn more about the ocean. She is wholly committed to ocean advocacy work and feels strongly that scientists have an obligation to share their science and their passion broadly.


Awards and honors

In 1997, Joye received the inaugural L. Eugene Cronin award from the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. The Cronin Award recognizes significant accomplishments of an estuarine scientist who is in the early stages of his/her career development. In 2001, she was named one of the most exceptional individuals in Georgia under 40 (“40 under 40”) by Georgia Trend magazine. Joye was named a Fellow and Visiting Science of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole in 1997 and 1999. In 2002, she received a sabbatical fellowship from the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst, Germany, and a visiting professor appointment at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (Bremen, Germany) to conduct research abroad for a year. In 2005, she was named a research fellow of Smithsonian Institution, Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystem Program, in Carrie Bow Cay, Belize. In 2007, she received a Distinguished Service Award for Public Education and Outreach from the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 2008, she received a “Creative Research Medal” from the University of Georgia. In 2010, Joye was named the UGA Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences. In 2012 Joye was named one of the “100 Most Influential Georgians” by Georgia Trend Magazine. In 2014, The Informer named Joye one of the most 100 influential women in Georgia. As a testament to the interdisciplinary nature of Joye's work, she has been named a
Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of four leading scientific societies: the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
in 2014, the
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), formerly known as the Limnological Society of America and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, is a scientific society established in 1936 with the goal of advan ...
in 2016, the
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...
in 2017, and the
American Academy of Microbiology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
in 2018. She is also a National Fellow in the Explorer's Club (2018). In 2015, Joye was named the University of Georgia's recipient of the SEC Faculty Achievement Award. In 2016, Joye was invited to be the Commencement Speaker for the
Graduate School Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachel ...
at the University of North Carolina, her alma mater. A few weeks later, Joye was an invited speaker at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Microbiome Project kickoff event. She was named a Regents' Professor by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents in 2019. In 2020, she received the honor of being selected to present the ''Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecture'' by The Geochemical Society. In 2022, Joye was awarded the Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean Exploration by the Marine Technology Society and the Society for Underwater Technology. In 2018, she completed a residency focusing on the intersection of science and art at the Djerrasi Resident Artists Program; she is a co-PI for The Ocean Memory Project at the University of Washington, sponsored by a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) Challenge Grant. Through the Ocean Memory program, Joye is collaborating with artist Rebecca Rutstein on an exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art that includes a November 2018 expedition to the Guaymas Basin of the Gulf of California, Sea of Cortez in DSV Alvin. Joye and Rutstein were interviewed about their collaboration in a 2023 episode of The Ongoing Transformation podcast from Issues in Science and Technology journal.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joye, Samantha 1965 births Living people American oceanographers University of Georgia faculty People from Laurinburg, North Carolina University of North Carolina alumni American women oceanographers