• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Present
  * Ecophysiology of deeply-branching Bacteria and Archaea in hydrothermal environments:
  - Habitats, colonization and potential co-evolution of Aquificales and uncultured Crenarchaea in Yellowstone, Vulcano ( Italy ), and Ambitle ( Papua New Guinea )
  - Investigation of carbon sources of the above mentioned
  - Investigation of potential biomarkers for thermophilic Bacteria and Archaea
• Postdoctoral Research Associate, Washington University in St. Louis 2004
  * Ecosystem diversity under elevated arsenic concentrations, Papua New Guinea:
  - Using geochemistry, molecular biology, microscopy and culturing techniques
  - Investigating thermophilic organisms living in shallow marine thermal vents containing extremely elevated concentrations of arsenic
  - Modeling ecosystem dynamics and stress response
• Doctoral Candidate, Washington University in St. Louis 1998-2004
  * Building Earth analogs for the study of Astrobiology:
  - Terrestrial hydrothermal ecosystems in Yellowstone National Park
  - Shallow marine hydrothermal systems in Vulcano , Italy and Ambitle, Is. PNG
  * Ecosystem diversity in Yellowstone National Park hot spring environments:
  - Using molecular biology techniques and fluorescent microscopy
  - Comparison of thermophilic community diversity in three geothermal systems of variable geochemistry
  * Geochemistry of Yellowstone hot springs:
  - Collected geochemical data from an average of fifty hot spring features over four field seasons from 1999. These data comprise the largest, most continuous collection of geochemical data from these thermal features, allowing investigation of temporal and seasonal variability.
  * Culturing of thermophiles using geochemical data as templates for growth media:
  - Developed a method of designing aqueous growth media for culturing thermophiles specific to individual thermal features, using the above geochemical database.
  - Obtained pure isolates of novel thermophiles
  - I am currently working to identify and characterize 19 novel species from these cultures.
  * Calculations of energy available for microbial growth in geochemical systems:
  - Determined the theoretical energy available from microbially mediated geochemical reactions in the Fe, S, N, H redox systems for the hot springs in my study.

•  Amend, J.P., Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Sheth, S.N., Zolotova, N., and Amend, A.C. (2003), Palaeococcus helgesonii , sp. nov., a facultatively anaerobic, hyperthermophilic Archaeon from a geothermal well on Vulcano Island , Italy . Archives of Microbiology , 179, 394-401.

•  Amend, J.P., Rogers , K.L., and Meyer-Dombard, D.R., (2004), Microbially mediated sulfur-redox: Energetics in marine hydrothermal vent systems. IN: Sulfur Biogeochemistry-Past and Present.GSA Special Paper 379 (Eds., Amend, J.P, Edwards, K.J., and Lyons, T.W.),p.17-34.

•  Shock, E.L. Holland, M. Meyer-Dombard, D. and Amend J.P. (2005, in press) Geochemical sources of energy for microbial metabolism in hydrothermal ecosystems: Obsidian Pool, Yellowstone National Park , USA . Geothermal Biology and Geochemistry in Yellowstone National Park . (W. Inskeep, T. McDermott, eds.), Thermal Biology Institute, Montana State University (pp. 95-112).

•  Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Shock, E.L., Amend, J.P. (2005), Archaeal and Bacterial Communities in Geochemically Diverse Hot Springs of Yellowstone National Park , USA . Geobiology , 3 , 211-227.

•  Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Shock, E.L., and Amend, J.P., Geochemical templates in growth media design: Trace element effects on culturing thermophiles. (submitted, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, in review).

•  Meyer-Dombard, D.R., M.R. Osburn, R. Price, T. Pichler, J.P. Amend. Prokaryotic populations in heated sediments of a shallow submarine hydrothermal system, Ambitle Island , Papua New Guinea . (submitted, FEMS Microbiology Ecology ).

•  Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Osburn, M.R., Shock, E.L., Amend, J.P. Novel thermophiles from Sylvan Spring, a slightly acidic sulfate-chloride hot spring in Yellowstone National Park : physiological characteristics and ecological implications. (in preparation for Archives of Microbiology ).

•  Shock, E.L., Meyer-Dombard, D.R., Amend, J.P., Osburn, G.R., and Fischer, T. Controls on the forms and abundances of geochemical energy in hot spring habitats, Yellowstone National Park , USA . (in preparation for Geobiology ).