1. Cristina Takacs-Vesbach was born on 1968 and is an American microbial ecologist conducting research on the productivity, diversity, and function of microbial communities living at the two extremes of temperature found on Earth-Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys and Yellowstone National Park's thermal springs.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach graduated in 1991 from CU Boulder with a degree in Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach developed a passion for microbial ecology in Dr Brad Tebo's laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, CA in 1994.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach spent three field seasons in the McMurdo Dry Valleys as a graduate student, including one WinFly season.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach was one of two US women who were the first to spend WinFly in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach completed her dissertation research on the factors affecting bacterioplankton biomass and productivity in Antarctic lakes 1999, graduating with a PhD in Microbial Ecology with a minor concentration in Biochemistry from Montana State University.
In 2002, Cristina Takacs-Vesbach joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico, awarded tenure in 2009 and promoted to full Professor in 2015.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach contributed to the description of the first microbiological study of sub-glacial Lake Vostok.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach's work revealed microbial diversity in this system can be as high as temperate and tropical soils, and although activity is low, it is the highest reported activity per g of soil carbon.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach is interested in determining the spatial and temporal variations of microbial diversity, distribution, and function across all major McMurdo Dry Valley habitats, including cryoconites, streams, lakes, and soils.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Development of a Strategic Vision for the US Antarctic Program and a member of the US National Committee for the International Polar Year.
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach received the Outstanding Performance in a Doctoral Program Award during 1999 from the Montana State University Foundation, Bozeman.