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Mary Ann Moran

Mary Ann Moran is a distinguished research professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia in Athens. She studies bacterial roles in Earth's marine nutrient cycles, and is known as a leader in the fields of marine sciences and biogeochemistry. Her work is focused on how microbes interact with dissolved organic matter and the impact of microbial diversity on the global carbon and sulfur cycles. By defining the roles of diverse bacteria in the carbon and sulfur cycles, she connects the biogeochemical and organismal approaches in marine science.

For her leadership and contributions to science, Moran is a recipient of many awards and honors including a Creative Research Medal from the University of Georgia, and the White Research and Mentoring Award from the American Society for Microbiology. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Education
Mary Ann Moran received her B.A. in Biology in 1977 at the Colgate University in Hamilton, NY.

She went on in school to get her M.S. in Natural Resources in 1982 at the Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Finally, she received her Ph.D. in the Graduate Program in Ecology, in 1987 at the University of Georgia, GA. She studied there under Robert E. Hodson. For her thesis, she studied variables affecting the biodegration rates of lignocellulose in wetland ecosystems. After receiving her Ph.D. She stayed at the University of Georgia to pursue her research.

Works and Discoveries
Mary Ann Moran's research focuses on the bacterial roles in the biogeochemical marine carbon and sulfur cycles. In order to decipher the roles of bacteria and better understand the diverse ways metabolizing occurs in the ocean, she uses ecological genomics, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, which is also what she focuses her research on.

As she progressed in her career, Moran's research focused on organic compounds and metabolic interactions that occur between dissolved organic matter and marine microbial communities. This field of science is what she remains studying to this day.

Her major contributions have been in the research of Dissolved organic Matter (DOM) and bacterial roles in the marine biogeochemical areas of science. She focuses mainly on the carbon and sulfur cycle.
 * Organic matter is carbon based compounds made by living organisms. The role of Organic matter is to provide habitats for organisms, nutrient exchange, soil retention, and to play a part in biological activity.


 * Dissolved Organic Matter is dead forms of organic material, such as dead plant parts, that has degraded and dissolved to become constituents of large or small bodies of water. DOM's role effects the soil structure, water infiltration rate and moisture holding capacity of soils, the diversity and biological activity of soil organisms; and plant nutrient availability.


 * Biogeochemistry science is the study of natural cycles such as the Carbon cycle and Sulfur cycle, which recycle vital elements of living matter.

As described in her Cryptic Carbon and Sulfur cycling between surface ocean plankton paper, organic matter is released by phytoplankton and then degraded by heterotrophic bacteria. That is a major step in the carbon cycle. Compounds important for the trophic link are poorly known because there are thousands of chemicals making up marine dissolved organic matter. One of the goals of Moran's research group is to predict how microbes and dissolved organic matter respond to our changing climate and how those responses, in turn, affect the global carbon cycle.

Organic compounds and metabolic interactions that occur between dissolved organic matter and marine microbial communities is a lot of what her articles and publishments are about. They cover organic matter being released by phytoplankton and degraded by heterotrophic bacteria.

There are thousands of chemicals that make up marine dissolved organic matter and therefore make the compounds poorly known. In Moran's research, gene expression was used to identify bits of the compounds important for the trophic link that passed through the tested bacteria. Dihydroxypropanesulfonate and N-acetyltaurine were discovered and both of the compounds contained sulfur molecules. That discovery, according to Moran's work, will most likely lead to a stronger understanding of the Sulfur cycle.

Roseobacter bacteria is an organism she discovered, as a result of the technique she developed for studying naturally occurring marine bacteria in their natural place/ habitat. The ecology and physiology of the Roseobacter bacteria is what she studies consequently of her discovery of it.

Besides the discovery of the Roseobacter clades, another major impact that she and her team has made to science is that they discovered a "switch gene" in two groups of plankton. The gene helps determine whether certain marine bacterioplankton convert a sulfur compound to one that rises into the atmosphere and affects the temperature of the Earth or whether the sulfur compound remains idle in the seas and has no effect on the climate. Basically, they discovered connections in the biology of cloud formation over the oceans.

Honors and Scientific Leadership

 * In 1997, Moran received a Creative Research Medal from the University of Georgia for outstanding research focusing on a single theme.


 * From 2001- 2002, she was Chair of the Microbial Ecology Division of the American Society for Microbiology.


 * In 2005 she was named a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia in recognition of her contributions to knowledge in her discipline. The research she did on the roseobacters is what led to her being appointed as a Distinguished Research Professor.


 * Moran was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2006.


 * From 2004- 2012, she was Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator in Marine Microbiology for her work on the genomics of marine bacteria.


 * She received the first White Research and Mentoring Award from the American Society for Microbiology, D.C. in 2008 in recognition of her dedication to creating an atmosphere that allows young scientists in undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels of education to fulfill their potential and for serving as a role model and mentor for scientists of all ages.
 * She has served as a mentor and role model for eight graduate students, nine postdoctoral students, 25 undergraduate students, and five high school interns.


 * Moran was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009.

As of present day, she is a member of the:
 * Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology since 2009


 * JGI Prokaryotic Super Program Advisory Committee since 2011


 * JGI Scientific Advisory Committee since 2012


 * Science Board of Reviewing Editors since 2015


 * American Academy of Microbiology Board of Governors since 2014