Professor David C. Smith of the University of Rhode Island will present a lecture, "Life in Marine Sediments: Probing the Limits of Earth's Deep Biosphere," on Friday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. in the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, room 317 on the Coastal campus. The lecture, sponsored by Coastal's Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, is free and open to the public.

Smith is an assistant professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He earned a bachelor's degree in marine biology from California State University and a Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California. Smith's research interests include marine microbial ecology with emphasis on food web dynamics as related to marine biogeochemistry. He was one of three scientists at the University of Rhode Island to be awarded a $3.9 million five-year grant from NASA.

The lecture has been made possible through a distinguished lecturer grant from the Joint Oceanographic Institution and the U.S. Science Advisory Committee (JOI/USSSAC). The JOI/USSSAC sponsors a series of lectures on issues relating to the earth's biosphere.

For more information, contact German Y. Ojeda, assistant director of the Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, at (843) 234-0118.