Ole Miss Alumni Review: Undersea Explorer

UM professor Marc Slattery

Professor’s Research Protects, Restores Marine Ecosystems

When Marc Slattery is not teaching medical micro-biology to undergraduates and chemical ecology to graduate students, he is working in the field, more specifically, the water.

The professor of pharmacognosy got his start at the School of Pharmacy two decades ago under the direction of associate dean emeritus Charles Hufford.

“I wasn’t a traditional pharmacist, but I came here and found collaborations I normally wouldn’t have and applications for my work that I would have never really considered,” Slattery says.

Slattery’s enthusiasm for chemical ecology and natural products has taken him all over the world – from the Bahamas to Antarctica and many places in between. Through deep reef dives, he has studied the effects of climate change on sponges and hybrid soft corals and has worked to replenish their populations.

Slattery’s primary focus at the school is the Environmental Toxicology Research Program. Some of his latest and most compelling work has been focused on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

With Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary coming to a close and the aftereffects of the 2010 BP oil spill revealed, Slattery has spent a lot of time using his environmental toxicology skills to collect data on coastal communities and plan for their future. While Katrina and the oil spill had different effects, they both changed the landscape of the coast’s reefs.

“It’s really interesting to look at Katrina versus the oil spill in terms of oysters,” Slattery says. “Even though Katrina was a huge disaster, it had an immediate impact. With Katrina, the population went down for a year and then came back. The oil spill impacts certainly appear to be much longer and more damaging.”

Slattery and his team have several proposals out for conservation and restoration of the coast’s oyster reefs. Slattery’s passion goes beyond his research. He says he has enjoyed giving back to the university community through teaching and outreach. To give his students as much field experience as possible, he heavily involves students in research projects.

“Giving back to my students, whether it’s teaching them, taking them to the field or providing scholarships, just makes sense for me,” Slattery says. “It’s important.”

His love for students, as well as his love for the School of Pharmacy, has been a great inspiration for Slattery.

“I wouldn’t be as successful as I am without the people in the Environmental Toxicology Research Program, my colleagues in the Department of BioMolecular Sciences, and even the administration has been really supportive of me and my research,” Slattery says. “They’ve allowed me to succeed. I don’t know that I could get that anywhere else.”

This story was reprinted with permission from the Ole Miss Alumni Review. The Alumni Review is published quarterly for members of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. Join or renew your membership with the Alumni Association today, and don’t miss a single issue.

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