Royal Society of Chemistry at MARM
The RSC-US Section held its Spring 2005 meeting at MARM

Prof. Richard Lutz was the after dinner speaker.  Prof. Lutz also spoke during the Sunday program at MARM.

The RSC US Section meets several time each year at locations up and down the East Coast from Washington to Boston

Prof. Lutz talked about his work exploring the deep sea volcanic vents and the different life forms which exist around them.

The audience enjoyed  a reception, dinner, Prof. Lutz's presentation then an extensive question and answer session followed by more discussion.

Dr. Lutz is one of the foremost authorities in the world on the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Since the first biological expedition to these unique ecosystems in 1979, Dr. Lutz has spent countless hours on the bottom exploring thermal vents throughout the world's oceans in a variety of deep-diving submersibles.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maine in 1975 and subsequently spent several years as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. In 1979, he joined the faculty of Rutgers University, where he currently is a Professor in the Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences. He has been Chief Scientist on numerous oceanographic cruises, has over 160 publications, and received awarded the Rutgers' Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research.

In April 1991, Dr. Lutz joined a number of his geological colleagues on an oceanographic expedition, during which they used the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin to dive, for the first time, into the caldera of an actively erupting volcanic ridge along the East Pacific Rise at a depth of 2500 meters. Dr. Lutz has returned to the site at approximately annual intervals to document events that have occurred since the eruption.

The results of his ongoing studies at the volcanic eruption site have been featured in many scientific journals and magazines, including Science, Nature, the October, American Scientist (cover story), and three separate issues of National Geographic. Observations made during the course-of Dr. Lutz's-ongoing studies in this unique "natural deep-sea laboratory” are dramatically altering our views of the rates at which many biological and geological processes are occurring on the face of the planet. Dr. Lutz was Principal Investigator on the NSF project which funded the IMAX film entitled Volcanoes of the Deep Sea and served as the film's Science Director.