Jan Amend

Title:	Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Director, Environmental Studies
Degree:	PHD, University of California BA, University of California
Dept:	Environmental Studies
Office:	Earth & Planetary Science Bldg 242
Mailbox:	Campus Box 1169 One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 Hide Full Mailing Address
Phone:	(314) 935-8651
E-mail:	amend@wustl.edu

Courses
Biogeochemistry, Environmental Geochemistry, Special Topics in Microbiology

Research Interests: Microbial Geochemistry
Professor Amend’s research group combines geochemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology to study the chemical connections between microorganisms and their natural environment. The approach combines experimental, theoretical, analytical, and field components. Most of Professor Amend’s research efforts are aimed at the microbial geochemistry of hydrothermal systems. Since microbes thriving at very high temperatures (hyperthermophiles) were first isolated several decades ago, they have captured the interests of microbiologists, molecular biologists, and biochemists. Because the metabolisms of these novel organisms are intimately tied to the chemistry of their natural environments, geochemists have started to investigate the roles of thermophiles in marine and continental surface and subsurface environments. Professor Amend’s field areas include the hydrothermal systems of the Aeolian Islands, north of Sicily, Italy and those at Yellowstone National Park in the western United States, two of the most prolific sites of hyperthermophilic activity. Current projects in Professor Amend’s group include:

• Sampling by SCUBA the shallow marine vents near Vulcano and Panarea Islands in Sicily and characterizing the geochemical environment in which a wide variety of hyperthermophiles are known to thrive.
• Designing growth media based on geochemical data and thermodynamic calculations to isolate, characterize, and study novel organisms in the Aeolian Islands and Yellowstone.
• Carrying out growth experiments to investigate the overall metabolic energy requirements of several classes of hyperthermophiles, including methanogens, sulfur reducers, and microaerophiles.
• Studying the aqueous organic geochemistry of hot springs in Italy, Yellowstone, and Iceland to identify natural carbon sources for heterotrophic microorganisms.
• Calculating thermodynamic properties of aqueous biochemical compounds as functions of temperature and pressure using group additivity equations of state; these properties will permit, among others, a quantitative assessment of the energetics of intracellular metabolic reactions.

Recent publications:

Rogers, K .L. and Amend, J. P. (2006, in press) Energetics of heterotrophic metabolisms in the marine hydrothermal system of Vulcano Island, Italy. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70.

Rogers, K. L. and Amend, J. P. (2005) Archaeal diversity and geochemical energy yields in a geothermal well on Vulcano Island, Italy. Geobiology 3, 319-332.

Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Shock, E.L., and Amend, J.P. (2005), Thermophilic Communities in Three Geochemically Distinct Geothermal Ecosystems, Yellowstone National Park, USA. Geobiology 3, 211-227.

Rusch, A., Walpersdorf, E., deBeer, D., Gurrieri, S., and Amend, J.P. (2005), Microbial communities near the oxic/anoxic interface in the hydrothermal system of Vulcano Island, Italy. Chemical Geology 224, 169-182 (2005).

McCollom, T.M. and Amend, J.P. (2005), A thermodynamic assessment of energy requirements for biomass synthesis by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms in oxic and anoxic environments. Geobiology 3, 135-144 (2005).