CAMP US PROFILE
Charles Peterson: Blurring the Lines
Between Science and Application
‘Some scientists
don’t develop
real-world
applications for
their work.
But I think
you have an
obligation
to determine
how to apply it
for the
public good.’
Charles Peterson
It is a compelling image, one that speaks
of both scientific resolve and remove:
Charles Peterson, alumni distinguished
professor at UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences, jammed into a tiny submarine cruising some two miles below the ocean’s surface. The only light comes from the exotic
creatures around; the powered-down submarine tiptoes around deep-sea hydrothermal vents spouting water hot enough to
melt the walls of the vessel. And Peterson is
driven there purely out of scientific curiosity, lured to the silent ocean floor by the
opportunity to observe a community
driven by chemical energy rather than
photosynthesis.
Perhaps it is a slightly misleading image,
too, for while the resolve is stamped all
over Peterson’s 31 years at UNC as a conservation ecologist focused on marine and
estuarine systems, “removed” isn’t really his
style. In a profession in which staying out
of the fray is often prized, Peterson comes
off as exceptionally engaged in the question of how his work will be used outside
the laboratory.
So while he does leap at the chance to
climb into that sub every now and then, it
is easier to picture him standing before some
legislative body or another — maybe it’s a
congressional panel in Washington, maybe
the Carteret County Board of Commissioners down the street from his Morehead
City office — explaining what his research
means for ecosystem management, or using
it to help craft sound policy decisions.
SCOT T TAYLOR
Peterson calls this “blurring the lines”
between sound science and its practical
applications an ethical necessity, given that
his work depends in part on public funding.
“Some scientists don’t develop real-world
applications for their work,” he said. “But I
think you have an obligation to determine
how to apply it for the public good.”
Fulfilling that obligation, of course, starts
with the quality of the research. Since
Peterson received his doctorate from the
University of California-Santa Barbara in
1972, he has authored or co-authored
some 150 scientific papers, the bulk of
them dealing with benthic communities —
the creatures that live in and on the floor
of a given body of water — in estuaries
and lagoons. While many of those papers
address specific soft-sediment creatures
with outlandish names like quahogs and
whelks, he also has turned his attention to
the fundamental assumptions of how
marine ecologists do their work.
“He’s one of those scientists who is
really experimentally rigorous,” said
Jonathan Grabowski, one of Peterson’s for-
A 31-year faculty
veteran, Peterson
recently drew national attention for his
research linking big
sharks and the collapse of North
Carolina’s bay scallop fishery.
