C-DEBI invites proposals for for community workshops that will help to advance C-DEBI’s central research agenda: to investigate the subseafloor biosphere deep in marine sediment and oceanic crust, and to conduct multi-disciplinary studies to develop an integrated understanding of subseafloor microbial life at the molecular, cellular, and ecosystem scales.
2011-2018 C-DEBI Annual Meetings
Members of the C-DEBI community meet annually to report on and discuss presently-active, C-DEBI-funded research and education and outreach projects. The size of the meeting is limited to approximately 70 people to support well-integrated discussions; priority invitation will be given to those C-DEBI participants with active grants who have not presented on their work previously. Stay tuned for details regarding our next Annual Meeting. As in previous years, the meeting will be preceded by a graduate student and postdoctoral professional development workshop.
2017-2018 Deep Subsurface Microbiology Collaborative Workshops
C-DEBI continues to collaborate with external partners such as the Deep Life science community of the Sloan-Foundation funded Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO). In 2017, these workshops included the DCO-C-DEBI Deep Life Cultivation Workshop (5-6 November, Rotorua, New Zealand) organized by Jan Amend, Doug Bartlett and Fumio Inagaki, the first annual International Geobiology Society Conference (11-14 June, Banff, Alberta, Canada), the Axial Seamount Drilling Workshop (11-13 October, LDEO), and Assessment of the JOIDES Resolution in Meeting the Challenges of the IODP Science Plan (26-27 September, Denver). In 2018, these workshops included Microorganisms and Organic Carbon in the Marine Subsurface, (March 11-13, Knoxville, TN), C-DEBI/CCB (Center for Computational Biology) Evolution Workshop (March 22-23, Simons Foundation Flatiron Institute), and Deep Sea Mining Impacts on Microbial Ecosystem Services (April 18-19, Bigelow Laboratory) [announcement website].
2015-2017 Introduction to Bioinformatics Workshop
Designed to be interactive and hands-on by C-DEBI’s Bioinformatic Specialist, Dr. Benjamin Tully, the C-DEBI ‘Introduction to Bioinformatics’ workshop provides a baseline for geoscientists interested in the basics of bioinformatic processing for microbial genomic data. The two-day workshop has hosted 34 researchers from C-DEBI member labs in three different instances of the workshop (Dec 2015, Dec 2016, and Feb 2017).
2015-2016 Research Focus Area Workshops
In 2015, the C-DEBI theme workshops were replaced by biome (basement and sediment) workshops integrated across the research themes to review the state of knowledge at the end of Phase 1. Subsequently, a workshop on the origins and movement of life was held in conjunction with the Deep Carbon Observatory in 2016.
2010-2014 Research Theme Team Workshops
In the initial phase of C-DEBI, the following four themes were the focus of C-DEBI research, providing a conceptual framework for scientific investigation supported by C-DEBI across a broad scientific community: Activity, Extent of Life, Limits to Life, and Evolution and Survival. For each of these themes, Theme Team Leaders regularly brought together experts within and outside of C-DEBI to identify new research directions within each theme. Based on these “think tank” conversations, the Theme Team Leaders developed Requests for Proposals for the initial phase of C-DEBI small grants and fellowship programs.
2008-2014 Kickoff and DEBI RCN (Research Coordination Network) Meetings
In 2008, a dedicated “kickoff” meeting identified circa 30 “founding members” and developed a framework for developing a community and a sustained institute for deep biosphere research. With the DEBI RCN, we held annual, theme-based meetings to address the research and coordination efforts of the growing deep biosphere community.