WADING IN THE BIG CREEK
James J. Childress Class of 1964

If you promised yourself you'd read the latest issue of the Wabash Magazine, but haven't gotten around to it just yet, go dig it out of the stack of items you set aside to read in "awhile."

Or click on this link: http://www.wabash.edu/magazine/index.cfm?news_id=3577

Jim Childress was a zoology major/chem minor at Wabash when Waugh Hall was inhabited by the likes of the legendary Willis Johnson (coauthor with Professors Richard Laubengayer, Louis DeLanney and Thomas Cole of the text which guided generations of Wabash men through Bio 1 and 2) and Elliott Williams, who taught ecology to Wabash students before the rest of the world had heard the word, let alone learned how to spell it.

Even so, the "creek" referred to in the headline of the article is (probably) not Sugar Creek, site of many Williams-led expeditions over the years.

To whet your appetite for the full article, here are a few excerpts:

"That burst of enthusiasm over a 're-discovered' deep-sea specimen says a lot about what drove a boy from Greensburg, Indiana to explore the ocean depths and become one of the leading experts in his field: Jim Childress is a man who always follows his greatest curiosities."

"And he’s not surprised his interests have led him to the depths of the sea. After all, he spent many of his formative years getting to the bottom of the curious waters in his own backyard, playing in the creek behind his house. There he waded and collected a wide variety of local aquatic life: tadpoles, frogs, turtles, and anything else he found. The various animals accumulated in aquariums filling his room and spilling over to the rest of his house. Today, his University of California, Santa Barbara office is similarly crammed with animal pictures, posters, and fossils, now complete with living deep-sea creatures kept in pressurized tanks across the hall."

" 'I was always drawn to the water as a kid, and I loved fishing in the creek with my father,' Childress says. 'But what I enjoyed most was exploring, so when I got older and my scientific interests developed, I guess I began to view the ocean as a much larger creek.' "

* * * * *
"In 1979, Childress was a member of an expedition that forever changed the way we understand that complex environment. Following the discovery in 1977 of a thriving community of tubeworms, giant clams, white crabs, and other species in the mineral rich, warm water spewed by the Galapagos Rift hydrothermal vent, Childress and his colleagues began to study the physiological adaptations of these creatures that lived where none had ever expected to find abundant life. Under-standing these adaptations has become much of his life’s work, taking him to hydrothermal vents around the world."

* * * * *
"In May 2005, Childress was honored with the prestigious Cody Award from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Awarded once every two years, the Cody recognizes scientific achievement in oceanography, marine biology, or earth science."

" 'I’m just proud to be associated with the names of past Cody award winners,' Childress says. 'I have a tremendous level of admiration for that group of scientists.'"

"Another unexpected honor came from his former graduate student, Dr. Erik Thuesen. During a series of cruises off the coast of California, Thuesen and Childress discovered at great depths several colorful species of jellyfish that had never been identified. When it came time to name the creatures, Thuesen called the black jellyfish Vampyrocrossota childressi after Childress, to match his mentor’s dark sense of humor....I thought it was funny he chose to name the black jellyfish after me, but I was flattered as well.' "

* * * * *
" 'All living things are amazing. I love to go hiking in the mountains; when you think about what it takes just for my body to balance as I walk from one rock to another, it’s remarkable. You do it without even thinking about it, and that’s what I find so fascinating. I’m just always trying to figure out why things are the way they are.'"

" 'I’m not sure how my work will be viewed 100 years from now, if at all. But I hope that future scientists will follow their own curiosities the way I have. If they do, then some day I think we have a chance to put the pieces together.' "

From the Spring 2006 issue of WABASH Magazine
article by Colin Hodgkins
May 24, 2006