David Gruber
Seeing Through Biofluorescence
As Distinguished Professor of Biology at City University of New York, David Gruber has identified over 200 new species of marine creatures that possess biofluorescence (effectively the absorption of blue ocean light and its transformation into green, orange and red wavelengths) including corals, sharks and sea turtles.
Some of the molecules he’s identified related to this biofluorescence are now being used in life-saving cancer research applications. As a technical scuba diver, David and his team studied mesophotic corals that have shown seasonal bleaching patterns of deep corals. They found a novel technique of studying coral bleaching events for the past several thousand years using boron isotopes. His team’s most recent study details the traits that some corals possess that has allowed them to survive previous mass extinction events. Last but not least, they are also decoding sperm whale sounds with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and robotics. For more, go to his website, Project CETI, Linkedin, Instagram and Twitter.

