Dr. Heath Mills

Bio

Dr. Heath Mills' research focuses on molecular characterization of microbial community structure and function. His work combines state of the art molecular tools with fine scale geochemical analysis to better understand the active, as well as potential microbial community composition and metabolic activity.

His research has taken him from the hills of Tennessee to deep-sea submersible dives in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. He completed some of the first characterizations of microbial communities within Gulf of Mexico gas hydrate and has since completed additional marine sediment and terrestrial subsurface molecular projects. These projects utilized functional gene targets to track and characterize microbial groups associated with key energy yielding processes including iron, sulfur and nitrogen cycling.

Returning to the deep sea, Mills will be exploring the deep subsurface biosphere as a member of the Ocean Drilling And Sustainable Earth Sciences (ODASES) team, a program with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Exploration of sediments kilometers below the seafloor will present exciting new questions including:

• What is alive?
• How are those organisms alive?
• How have they evolved?
• How does their activity affect their environment?

Research Interests

• Molecular characterization of microbial community structure and function
• Deep subsurface life exploration
• Nitrogen cycling in marine system prokaryote populations: nosZ and amoA gene targets
• Iron and sulfate reducing prokaryote competition in salt marsh sediment: gltA and dsrA gene targets
• Bioremediation of radionuclide contaminated sediments

Projects

•  Identification of microbial community structure and function within uranium and nitrate contaminated subsurface sediments.
• Utilizing molecular gene targets to determine abundance and location of iron and sulfate reducing populations within salt marsh and subseafloor sediments.
• Tracking carbon utilization in the total and denitrifying microbial communities within sandy sediments following algal bloom deposition.

Experience

• Assistant Professor, Jan 2008-present - Department of Oceanography. Texas A&M University. Ocean Drilling and Sustainable Earth Sciences Faculty
• Assistant in Research, Aug. 2004 - Dec 2007. Faculty sponsor- Dr. Joel E. Kostka. Department of Oceanography, Florida State University

Publications

• Akob, D, H.J. Mills, J.E. Kostka. 2007. Metabolically active microbial communities in uranium-contaminated subsurface sediments. FEMS Microbial Ecology. 59:95-107.
• Burkepile, D., J.D. Parker, C.B. Woodson, H.J. Mills, J. Kubanek, P.A. Sobecky, and M.E. Hay. 2006. Chemically mediated competition between microbes and animals: Microbes as consumers in food webs. Ecology. 87:2821-2831.
• Hunter, E.M., H.J. Mills, and J.E. Kostka. 2006. Microbial community diversity associated with carbon and nitrogen cycling in permeable shelf sediments. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 72:5689-5701.
• Martinez, R., H.J. Mills, S. Story, and P.A. Sobecky. 2006. Prokaryotic diversity and metabolically active microbial populations in sediments from an active mud volcano in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental Microbiology. 8:1783-1796.
• Mills, H.J., R. Martinez, S. Story, and P.A. Sobecky. 2005. Characterization of metabolically active microbial populations in Gulf of Mexico shallow gas hydrate. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 71:3235-3247.

News

• Selected to attend "International Workshop on Microbial Life under Extreme Energy Limitation - 'The Starving Majority'" - Aarhus, Denmark - Oct, 2007
• Visiting scientist at Max Planck Institute for Marine Micriobiology, Bremen, Germany, Summer 2007

Links

• ODASES Program
• Intergrated Ocean Drilling Program