Jim Gharib

What is your job on the ship? Playing an essential part in the grand scheme of things.

How long have you been doing this? MY first research cruise was in 1995

What is your favorite part of what you do? The hands-on science.

What is the least favorite part of your work? All the egotistical people all over the place.

How/why did you get into this field? To paraphrase Bob Dylan: “I see the Master’s hand, In every drop of water, In every grain of sand.”

What are your career goals? To finish grad school before I have any more children and/or before they finish grad school.

What is the biggest misconception about what you do? In general: That it will ever ultimately benefit humanity. Specifically for this cruise: that it will ever ultimately benefit my PhD project.

What is the most important skill/trait that you rely on? My ability to work for long hours for basically no pay.

What is your most memorable experience from your career? No single experience: all the traveling and expeditions (including an Alvin Dive over 2.5 km deep) in which I’ve participated since starting grad school.

Tell us something about yourself. I grew up in Iran&Texas, now attend graduate school in Hawaii. I have parents and a brother in Texas & a wife (Marcy) and son (Eliot) in Hawaii. We also have a daughter named Coral who is really a dog, but she thinks she is a daughter so we indulge her. We also have a guinea pig, but he’s content in the fact that he’s a guinea pig and therefore doesn’t have the same anxiety/identity crisis that the dog has.