The Fouke laboratory research group focuses on the cross-disciplinary intersection of geology and molecular biology (Geobiology, Astrobiology), and medicine (GeoBioMed) with emphasis on the emergence and survival of Life within the context of dynamic Earth processes. Results have direct application to a wide variety of pressing societal interests that range from energy and human medicine to environmental sustainability and space exploration. Our active research projects include studies of: (1) applications of sedimentology, geochemistry and molecular microbiology to the subsurface biosphere and enhanced oil recovery; (2) quantification of the rate, mode and tempo of microbial evolution in response to steep gradients using a microfluidic test bed called the GeoBioCell; (3) the control of sea surface temperature on coral reef ecosystems, coral skeleton synthesis and the global emergence of infectious marine diseases; (4) the response of heat-loving (thermophilic) bacteria to changes in hot-spring flow rate, chemistry and temperature; (5) the timing and hydrology of the last flow of water in ancient Roman aqueducts; and (6) tracking and treating human heart, kidney and breast calcification with integrated GeoBioMed approaches.
Bruce Fouke is the Ralp E. Grim Professor in Earth Science & Environmental Change at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also serves as Director of the Illinois Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center. Bruce completed his B.Sc. at Bradley University, M.Sc. degrees at the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University. He then went on to complete postdoctoral appointments at the Free University Amsterdam, the University of California Berkeley, and Exobiology at NASA Ames Research Center. He was recently chosen as the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Roy M. Huffington Distinguished Lecturer for the Asia-Pacific Region, during which he presented lectures in India, Japan, China, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. Bruce has held professorships at Lund University, Sweden, and the Illinois Center for Advanced Studies, and has active adjunct faculty appointments at the Thermal Biology Institute at Montana State University, and the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity Laboratory on Curaçao. He serves on multiple science panels at NSF, DOE and NASA. Results from his scientific research have been reported on in National Geographic, the New York Times, and National Public Radio.