Biology Department

István A. Urcuyo

Associate Professor

Biology

Contact

Box

Campus Box 0392

Address

McCreary Hall
Room 225
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400

Education

BS The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, 1994
PhD The Pennsylvania State University, 2000

Academic Focus

Marine Biology, Marine Biodiversity, Hydrothermal Vent Ecology

I teach the first year sequence of introductory biology (Bio-111 and Bio-112) as well as upper-level courses in Tropical Marine Biology (Bio-228) and Paleobiology (Bio-240). Every once in a while I also teach a First Year Seminar titled “A Dying Ocean” in which freshman learn about and discuss the many environmental problems that our world’s oceans are facing. My present research focuses on the biodiversity of marine invertebrates along the pacific coast of Central America. My summer’s plans usually include weeks of field work on the pacific coast of Nicaragua accompanied by  Gettysburg college undergraduate research assistants. I have also participated in nine international oceanographic research expeditions to deep-sea habitats in the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeast Pacific Ocean using submersibles and ROV's such as ALVIN, JASON and ROPOS. I have a longstanding love-affair with cave exploration and extremophiles.