USF Biology prof dives deep for science

Posted Aug 29, 2011 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Aug 29, 2011 at 12:58 PM

USF professor James Garey has led the charge to get new quarters for USF biology programs, and this month students and faculty moved in to a 235,000-square-foot building at the center of campus.

They’re combined with the chemistry and physics departments, and Garey and others have high hopes of interdisciplinary breakthroughs.

Meanwhile, however, Garey’s office remains in the old, 60s-era science building, but that’s all right for a guy who does a lot of his research in dark, underground waters.

While biomedicine gets a lot of the glory in science circles, Garey’s specialty is research related to water and sustainability. And in his quest to understand how organisms live without oxygen he dives in caves.

Garey in his element

It’s not glitzy, but it’s pretty wild.

Check out this video to get a feeling for what it’s like down there.