Name: Alex Isern
Description: Alexandra Isern is the Ocean Technology Program Director at the National Science Foundation and is sailing on the Visions cruise primarily to get in the way of large equipment during deployments, to be a source of humor and mirth, and to report all suspicious activities to the proper authorities in Washington D.C. Before she sold out for a high paying job with the Federal Government, she was a carbonate sedimentologist and geochemist studying the development of reefs and carbonate platforms, particularly those off northeast Australia. Her research has absolutely no relevance to that being done on the Visions cruise with the exception that both involved organisms developing in warm water. She is the second "Gator" on the Visions cruise having received her B.S. in Geology at the University of Florida and her Masters in Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. At the University of Rhode Island she got her first chance to go to sea and has had difficulty staying away since. She received her PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Geology where she was able to develop an appreciation for the finer aspects of yodeling but she still can't ski.
Email: aisern@nsf.gov