Barbara Spiecker

Research Scientist

Education

Postdoc (2022), University of California at Santa Barbara (Advisor: Dr. Jenn Caselle)
Ph.D. (2020), Oregon State University (Advisor: Dr. Bruce Menge)
M.S. (2014), Northeastern University (Advisor: Dr. Tarik Gouhier)
B.S (2011), Rochester Institute of Technology (Advisor: Dr. Hyla Sweet)
Research Interests
Barbara Spiecker (she/her/hers) is a marine community ecologist who is broadly interested in scale-dependent responses of marine communities across space and time.
Her research focuses on:
1. Identifying underlying mechanisms that produce complex multi-scale responses of benthic communities and how these mechanisms and responses affect ecosystem-level processes from the bottom up.
2. Using data from long-term monitoring programs to address pressing ecological issues, identify biological patterns across ecosystems, and provide practical solutions to common data-related issues surrounding these programs.
  Alongside her research, she is actively involved with science communication and community outreach. She co-founded a non-profit organization called Atomic Hands. The organization’s mission is to foster curiosity in STEM through American Sign Language-centric resources, empower the signing community to develop and deliver engaging STEM topics, and encourage networking among deaf STEMists.