Joe Pollock

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Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

Media profile

The world’s coral reefs are undergoing rapid and unprecedented decline. An estimated 27% of the world’s reefs have already been lost and if the current pressure continues unabated, nearly 60% of the world’s reefs could be lost by the year 2030.

Joe Pollock is one of thirteen Americans to be granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to study in Australia in 2008. Joe, a Biology graduate from the University of Kentucky, is currently completing his Masters in Marine Biology at the College of Charleston. Through his Fulbright Joe will study with James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Joe’s project, Understanding the Role of Bacterial Communities in Coral Disease Outbreaks, will use biomolecular techniques to investigate the interactions between environmental stress and bacterial infection that give rise to coral disease. He will also seek to develop a molecular-based technique to detect and quantify specific pathogens in coral samples.

“A wide range of factors contribute to coral reef decline, including coastal development, over-fishing, and global climate change. Additionally, coral diseases are becoming an extremely important factor in reef decline as they continue to increase in both distribution and impact.”

“If we hope to control the rapid spread of coral diseases on our world's reefs, we must develop a better understanding of the conditions that give rise to coral diseases and develop the tools to detect the early warning signs of coral stress that precede infection.”

Joe’s research will involve three phases: “developing a technique to accurately detect and quantify Vibrionaceae bacteria on coral tissue, utilising this technique to monitor changes in coral bacterial community in response to stressors and pathogens in the laboratory, and using this information in the field to quantify stress and pathogen load on the Great Barrier Reef.”

Upon his return to the U.S., Joe plans to complete his Master’s degree requirements by completing and defending his thesis.

Joe has conducted research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the Hawaii Institute of Marine Science, and Florida's Mote Marine Laboratory. He has also been recognised for his academic and civic accomplishments with the Kenneth Freedman Award for Social Action in 2004, a Presidential Fellowship in 2007 and a Fellowship in Applied Marine Genomics in 2007.