Travis B. Meador

Travis has expertise in state-of-the-art techniques in both analytical chemistry and molecular biology to characterize the bulk chemical, functional group, and isotopic composition of physiologically and environmentally relevant molecules (i.e., biomarkers) found in natural organic matter and cultured organisms stemming from all three domains of life (i.e., Eukarya, Bacteria, and Archaea). His research has focused on biogeochemical cycles in the surface and deep oceans, as well as in estuaries, inland waters, and sediments.

Education and Academic Positions

• 2020-present Assist. Prof/Lecturer University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Dept. Ecosystem Biology (Budweis, Czechia)
• 2018-present Principal Investigator & Head of Laboratory Biology Center Czech Academy of Sciences (Budweis, Czechia)
• 2016-2017 Research Associate MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Research (Bremen, Germany)
• 2010-2015 Postdoc MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Research (Bremen, Germany)
• 2008-2010 Postdoc Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry (Falmouth, MA, USA)
• 2008 Postdoc University of the Aegean (Mytilini, Greece) and Hellenic Center for Marine Research (Anavyssos, Greece)
• 2008 Ph.D., Oceanography University of California San Diego - Scripps Institution of Oceanography (La Jolla, CA, USA)
• 2001 B.S. Marine Science University of South Carolina, summa cum laude (Columbia, SC, USA)

Research Interests

Teaching Interests

• Stable Isotope Course: An introduction to uses in ecology and plant physiology University of South Bohemia & TÜM collaborative intense course
• KBE/117 Biogeochemistry University of South Bohemia

Services

 

Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry

(continuous flow) with interfaces to EA, GC, LC, & Gas Bench

Scientific Activities

 

Active Projects:

Funded Projects	Principal Investigator	Collaborators	Funding Source	Term
Microbial antioxidants as biomarkers of recalcitrant organic matter	Sofia Semitsoglou-Tsiapou	Travis Meador, Lihini Aluwihare, David Kahoun	BC Grant Program (CAS)	2019-2020
Fungal Stable Isotope Fractionation (FUNSIF)	Travis Meador	Wesley de Melo Rangel	GAČR 20-22380S	2020-2022
Evaluating Groundwater Resources and Groundwater-Surface-Water Interactions in the Context of Adapting to Climate Change	IAEA staff & Scientists from 20+ EU countries		IAEA TC Project RER/7/013	2020-2023
Hydrogen and oxygen isotopes and cycling of humics in peat (PHOXYtopes)	Travis Meador	Petr Porcal (IHB, BC-CAS)	GAČR 21-26382S	2021-2024

 

Ongoing research themes:

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a black box of or­ganic mo­lecules in both the lo­gist­ical sense, that we vaguely un­der­stand how it cycles but do not know the un­der­ly­ing mech­an­isms that con­trol this cyc­ling, and in the aero­naut­ical sense, that DOM re­cords the mo­lecu­lar “con­ver­sa­tions” of events that have tran­spired. In­deed, DOM is of­ten de­pic­ted as a cent­ral com­pon­ent in mar­ine food webs, hav­ing im­port­ant ties to all do­mains of life and the global C cycle; however, the pro­cesses that con­trol its dis­tri­bu­tions and fluxes re­main poorly defined and fur­ther in­vest­ig­a­tion of its com­pos­i­tion and re­act­iv­ity is ne­ces­sary to re­solve en­vir­on­mental phe­nom­ena and an­thro­po­genic for­cings.

Biogeo­chem­ical Net­works: The gen­er­a­tion of large OTUs, geo­chem­istry, lipidomic data­sets has al­lowed for sci­ent­ists to ex­plore the re­la­tion­ship and po­ten­tial drivers of mi­cro­bial life be­low the sea­floor. Us­ing multi-vari­ate ana­lysis tech­niques, I am co­ordin­at­ing the res­ults and ef­forts of a team of sci­ent­ists to identify dia­gnostic trends in the dis­tri­bu­tion of mi­crobes and their cell mem­brane bio­mark­ers.