Aliens of the Deep - crew members

Dijanna Figueroa, Marine Scientist

"I know when everybody thinks of the scientist, they think of the glasses and the lab coat, but we also have a lot of fun," says Dijanna Figueroa, a Ph.D. student in Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who joined Cameron on the journey. "Science is also about getting into the field, and seeing things in strange places that people had never seen before. And this expedition has been great for that-it was months of work, but there was a huge scientific payoff. I think it was that way for all of the scientists-getting to go down and do our science was a great adrenaline rush."

Dijanna relished the chance to study life at extreme depth. "On every dive, I saw something I've never seen before," she notes excitedly. "I was on this trip to collect animals for UCSB," she continues. "We have an aquarium system at our lab where we can keep hydrothermal vent animals at the same pressure, temperature, and chemical environment they experience in nature and this allows us to study them under very controlled conditions over very long periods of time. It was months of work with a huge scientific payoff."

"When you walk up to the submersible before the dive, it looks big and sturdy-you get comfortable and relaxed. And then the day comes for your dive," says Figueroa. "You get in and your adrenaline is pumping and they close the hatch and everything goes quiet. And that's when you realize: 'I'm about to go down 3,600 meters-over 4,000 pounds per square inch of pressure pushing in on us-in this submarine, in this huge ocean.' And then it doesn't feel like the sub is so big anymore.

"When you dive down, as you go deeper and deeper-below 2,500 meters-it's cold," Figueroa continues. "Everyone puts on parkas and hoods and hats and gloves. And that's when you realize something else: you've put all your faith and trust in people who are telling you that this sub is safe so you can go down to the bottom of the sea and do this science, and you do it because the animals live down there and it's your job to check it out. Every dive, I had that experience-uncomfortable and maybe just a little afraid of what might happen-and it was always worth it to me."

Figueroa describes unforeseen challenges. "We were on a Russian ship," she says, "and the Russians use 220-volt power, while our lab is set up for 110-volt. And our equipment is powerful enough that you just can't plug in a travel adaptor. That took some work to figure out. Then there's the film crew, with their cameras and equipment everywhere-none of the scientists were used to that! But we learned and in the end, it was great. Everybody was on the same team. Just like in your day-to-day life: you have a job to do and, if you go with the flow, you get it done."

Dijanna grew up in Long Beach, California, and graduated from David Starr Jordan High School. She obtained her B.S. in Marine Biology from UCLA in 2001. While at UCLA, she studied pathogenetic mechanisms of muscular dystrophy as part of the university's Center for Academic Research Excellence. During her last year at UCLA, she interned at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and was introduced to the complex questions associated with life in the deep sea. Her current work focuses on the physiology and ecology of organisms adapted to some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Over the past few years, she has had the opportunity to conduct research at various deep-sea hydrothermal vents around the world. Since she began working in deep-sea environments, she has spent over 130 days at sea and participated in 12 manned submersible dives.