David Fike

Expertise: Polar Studies
Expedition Role: Biology
Affiliation: MIT

Who I am and what I Do

My name is David Fike and I am a first year Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working under Professor John Grotzinger. Although I am enrolled in the department’s Geology & Geochemistry program, my main interest lies in the field of geobiology: a blend of geology and microbiology examining the interactions between organisms and their environment. Within this broad discipline, my research is focused on the interactions of bacteria and other microorganisms with their environments, particularly aqueous environments, such as lakes or hot springs. Within hot springs, I am interested in looking at possible biological controls on the chemistry and morphology of calcium carbonate crystals precipitated from the water column. This has applications for understanding both the scope of biological interactions with the environment and for reconstructing the origin of life by examining ‘biosignatures’, physical and chemical signatures of biological activity preserved in the crystals of ancient rocks. I plan to focus my research into three main areas of geobiology: geology (examining the mineralogy, chemistry, and morphology of precipitated crystals), organic geochemistry (examining ‘lipid biomarkers’, specific biological signatures of organisms preserved in the rock record), and microbiology (using genetics to identify microbes and their role in causing and their response to environmental change).

As a beginning graduate student, my time is spent in a mixture of classwork and research, including fieldwork like this expedition to Licancabur. For the first expedition to Licancabur, I have been involved in developing some of the science objectives as well as helping to arrange the logistics for the trip to Chile. This project is so appealing because the lake atop Licancabur, the highest in the world, is such a unique environment for studying biology and biological interactions within the lake environment. I plan to study the biochemical characteristics of organisms in the lake. A comparison of these data with those from other biological communities will enable me to draw conclusions about how the extreme nature of the environment in the lake atop Licancabur has affected the community living there. This research involves the development of scientific hypotheses, data collection during exploration and fieldwork, and laboratory analysis. This process of examining and attempting to understand the environment was what originally drew me to science.

Career Journey

I entered college at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with the idea of being an astrophysicist, studying distant galaxies and stars. However, after almost two years filled with mostly theoretical calculations, I realized that needed something more tangible, more concrete that I could study, something that I could walk around or hold in my hands. After this realization, I began to examine other, more physical fields of science in which I was interested. One such subject was archaeology and, after taking some introductory coursework in this field in college, I traveled to central Italy after my second year of college, to work for three months as a field archaeologist at the 6th century BC Etruscan excavation of Poggio Civitate in Vescovado di Murlo, located about 30 minutes south of the city of Siena. I chose this excavation partly for personal reasons (I am half-Italian and I have always wanted to see the land from which my family came), and partly for practical reasons (they were the only ones willing to hire a physics student as a field archaeologist!).

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Italy, because of the work and because of the exposure to new cultures and environments that it provided. As a result, I was somewhat reluctant to return to rural Illinois for the remainder of my college years. To avoid (or at least delay) that fate, I chose to study for a year in the physics department of the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Darmstadt, Germany (about 30 minutes south of the city of Frankfurt), where I continued my studies. Again my choice was motivated partly by personal reasons (the remainder of my family is German, and had suggested it was time I visited that side of my family) and partly (mostly) by practical matters (the program in Germany not only accepted me, but also offered full funding for a year. While in Germany, I split my time between taking physics and mathematics seminars, lectures in German history and language, and traveling throughout Europe. By the end of the year, I was ready to return to the United States, to see my family and friends again, and to continue studying at an American university.

Upon returning from Germany, I finalized my decision to enter into a more physical science by adding a major in geology, where I studied carbonate hot springs at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming for my undergraduate thesis. This field really captured my enthusiasm for science, motivating me to go out into the world to understand different Earth systems, like the hot springs at Yellowstone or the lake atop Licancabur in Chile. This work introduced me to the field of geobiology, and I found it was a perfect match for my interests, blending fieldwork-based geology and biology with more theoretical-based chemistry and physics. To learn more about this field, I spent the summer of 2001 as a research associate at the NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy

How did you get to where you are?

At Ames, I worked with Drs. Nathalie Cabrol and Edmond Grin on a geological and morphological characterization of Gusev crater on Mars as a possible landing site for NASA’s 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission. This gave me an opportunity to learn more about planetary sciences and Mars, and broaden my knowledge of geological systems. It was while I was working at NASA Ames that I first got involved with the Licancabur project, assisting Nathalie and Edmond to develop the Licancabur proposal. The project appealed to me very much because of its multidisciplinary nature, pulling together many different branches of the Earth sciences in such an amazing setting. I left NASA Ames in the fall of 2001 to begin my master’s program the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, England, where I continued to develop my interest in geobiology. During my year in England, I studied bacteria living in the interior of rocks from the polar desert of the Canadian Arctic. These environments are some of the harshest on Earth, and I investigated the interactions between bacteria and the rock interior that made bacterial survival possible. This work focused my interest on the interaction of microorganisms with their environment and gave me the background in microbiology necessary to continue to pursue my studies in geobiology. It also provided me with a chance to revise my career goals. While in England, I applied to the geology and geochemistry program at MIT, where I currently am a first year PhD student. Since leaving NASA Ames, I have kept in contact with Nathalie and Edmond and have integrated the expedition to Licancabur into my graduate studies at MIT, where it serves as one of two projects that I need to complete over the next two years.

What made you study science?

As a kid growing up, first in New Jersey and later in the suburbs of Chicago, I was always interested in the how and why of the environment and the objects within it. The more I learned about science, the more I realized that science is really driven by the search for answers to exactly those kinds of questions. So, I guess that I have always wanted to be a scientist – I just never knew exactly what kind of scientist. As I learned more about the different branches of science, I felt drawn toward the earth and planetary sciences because they could be used as a tool to explain and understand the environment on the Earth beneath my feet and in the skies over my head.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Red Bank, New Jersey and spent my first 10 years in New Jersey, living first in Matawan and later in High Bridge. When I was 10, my family moved to Lake Zurich, IL, a northwestern suburb of Chicago, where my family has lived ever since. Since going to college I have called many places home, from rural Illinois to rural Italy, from small towns in Germany, England, and the Caribbean to the mountains of Wyoming, Peru, and Namibia in southern Africa, from San Francisco to Los Angeles and finally to Boston.

Personal (Family, hobbies, interests, etc.)

I have a small family, consisting of my sister Amy, who is a year and a half older than I am, and my parents, plus two aunts and uncles and the full complement of grandparents. Despite focusing on geobiology, I remain very interested in several other fields, most particularly archaeology, linguistics, and astronomy. This manifests itself mostly outside of the classroom (either reading a book, or in discussions with friends), although whenever I have the opportunity I take a class or do research on a project somehow related to one of these fields. Away from the academic life, I prefer to spend my free time reading, playing squash and racquetball, or cooking. I also love to hike and be in the outdoors, which was one of the reasons that I first got interested in geology.

Advice (Parting words for students or teachers)

I guess my advice would simply be to pursue everything in which you are interested (be it science, art, history, or anything else). Do not be afraid if those interests change over time, because they inevitably will. Also, make sure you have fun while you are pursuing your interests.