For Immediate Release
May 6, 2004

Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Honored with PECASE Presidential Early Career Award

A Georgia Tech faculty member was among 57 researchers awarded honors on May 4 as the nation's most promising young scientists and engineers.

Julia Kubanek, an assistant professor in the School of Biology and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech, received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) on May 4. Georgia Tech Photo: Caroline Joe 300 dpi version

Julia Kubanek, an assistant professor in the School of Biology and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was presented with a 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by John H. Marburger III, the science advisor to President Bush and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Kubanek was nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds her research in aquatic chemical ecology with a prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.

In addition to showing promise as a leader in science and engineering, CAREER award recipients have translated their work into significant education activities. NSF-supported PECASE recipients represent the best of CAREER winners. Of the 2,900 CAREER awards made since the program began in 1996, only 140 have received presidential recognition.

Kubanek conducts research at the interface of chemistry and ecology to investigate algal toxins and the responses of the ocean's zooplankton to those chemicals.

"She creatively applies and teaches the use of state-of-the-art analytical tools in marine ecology," noted an NSF news release. "Her students receive valuable training in interdisciplinary science and communication methods, aimed at non-scientists, which bridge fields of science and intersect research and policy."

One of Kubanek's primary studies centers on the chemically mediated interactions between aquatic microscopic plants called phytoplankton and animals called zooplankton. Specifically, she is investigating why some phytoplankton get eaten and others - such as toxic algae - don't get consumed by zooplankton.

Scientists believe certain chemical compounds defend some species of phytoplankton from predation. In laboratory experiments aimed at identifying these compounds, Kubanek incorporates various chemicals from phytoplankton into artificial food matrices that zooplankton either feed upon or ignore. To further understand these processes, Kubanek wants to determine the physiological effects of zooplankton's diets.

Assistant Professor Julia Kubanek and her colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have investigated a seaweed called Lobophora variegata and discovered it has strong antifungal potency. Georgia Tech Photo: Julia Kubanek 300 dpi version

"Do they grow more slowly or lay fewer eggs because of the chemical compounds they consume or avoid?" Kubanek said in a recent interview. "In turn, what effects does this selective eating have on the biology of phytoplankton? Similar questions have been asked and answered in terrestrial systems…. but little work has been done in aquatic environments."

In other research, Kubanek is collaborating with School of Biology Professor Mark Hay on the chemical defenses of plants and animals that inhabit coral reefs. They want to know how those chemical defenses shape the ecological community.

Kubanek and her colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Calif., have focused on seaweed chemical defenses against pathogenic fungi.

Using an ecologically driven assay, this study has yielded what researchers believe is a novel compound.

Such an approach is a new way for finding novel pharmaceuticals, Kubanek said. The rate of discovery of new drugs has slowed dramatically in recent years, but this method could improve that search, she added.

To read more about Kubanek's research, see the Research Horizons magazine article at gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-w03/s-key.html and the Research News article at gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/seaweed.htm. For more information on the PECASE awards, see www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/pr.cfm?ni=91

RESEARCH NEWS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS: Jane Sanders (404-894-2214); E-mail: (jane.sanders@edi.gatech.edu); Fax: (404-894-4545) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (john.toon@edi.gatech.edu).

TECHNICAL CONTACT: Julia Kubanek (404-894-8424); E-mail: (julia.kubanek@biology.gatech.edu)

WRITER: Jane Sanders