Laura Bagge

Contact Information:

Postdoctoral Scholar
Gorodetsky Group
Department of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science
916 Engineering Tower
University of California Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
laura.elizabeth.bagge@gmail.com

personal website

Interview about midwater and deep sea research using the submersible Alvin

Photos of research at the Smithsonian Field Station at Carrie Bow Cay, on the Meso-American Barrier Reef in Belize

Education:

PhD, Biology, Duke University, 2018
BS, Marine Biology, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
MS, Marine Biology, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Research Interests:

Dr. Laura Bagge is an integrative biologist interested in how the ultrastructure of tissues influences their optical properties, and more specifically, how these optical properties relate to morphological and physiological mechanisms of camouflage in animals. She uses an interdisciplinary approach by applying techniques in biophotonics to understand how certain organisms change color or render their bodies transparent.

Publications:

Peer-reviewed:

Bagge, L.E., Kinsey, S.T., and Johnsen, S. (2017). Transparent anemone shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni) become opaque after exercise and physiological stress due to increased hemolymph perfusion. Journal of Experimental Biology. Volume 220, Issue 22, Nov 15, 2017, cover article.
Select Media Coverage: Science

Netburn, A.N., Bush, S., Djurhuus, A., Fernandez, J., Hoffman, C.L., Kinsey, J.D., McVeigh, D., Twing, K.I., and Bagge, L.E. (2017). First HOV Alvin study of the pelagic environment at Hydrographer Canyon (NW Atlantic). Deep Sea Research Part II, in press.

Bagge, L.E., Osborn, K.J., and Johnsen, S. (2016). Nanostructures and monolayers of spheres reduce surface reflections in hyperiid amphipods. Current Biology. 26: 3071-3076.
Select Media Coverage: National Geographic; Smithsonian Magazine; Optics and Photonics News

Bagge, L.E., Koopman, H.N., Rommel, S.A., McLellan, W.A., and Pabst, D.A. (2012). Lipid class and depth-specific thermal properties in the blubber of two species of odontocete cetaceans, the short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and the pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps). Journal of Experimental Biology. 215: 4330-4339.

Popular science:

Bagge, L.E. (2016). A living cloak of invisibility. Biosphere. 21:24-35.

Theses and Dissertation:

Bagge, L.E. (2017). Clearly camouflaged crustaceans: The physical basis of transparency in hyperiid amphipods and anemone shrimp. Doctoral Dissertation. Duke University

Bagge, L.E. (2011). Thermal and phase-change properties of the blubber of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps). Master's Thesis. University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Bagge, L.E. (2008). Thermal properties of the blubber of female short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Honor's Undergraduate Thesis. University of North Carolina at Wilmington