Professor Anne Bernhard talks teaching, ‘playing in the mud’ with Grace magazine

The cover of this month's issue of Grace magazine features Biology Professor Anne Bernhard collecting soil samples at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington, Conn. Bernhard, a microbiologist who studies salt marshes, is profiled in the magazine.
The cover of this month's issue of Grace magazine features Biology Professor Anne Bernhard collecting soil samples at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington, Conn. Bernhard, a microbiologist who studies salt marshes, is profiled in the magazine.

"There aren’t very many people who get paid to play in the mud," Biology Professor Anne Bernhard told a magazine reporter recently. She is one of the lucky few.

Bernhard, who chairs the Biology Department at Connecticut College, is an expert in microbial ecology of estuaries and salt marshes. Her remarkable career landed her on the cover of the summer edition of Grace: Stories of Life and Personality. New London’s newspaper, The Day, publishes the general interest women’s magazine on a quarterly basis.

In April, reporter Tim Norris accompanied Bernhard to the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington, where she regularly conducts research with students. In the two resulting articles, Bernhard explains the importance that salt marshes play in supporting life, and details her career as a biologist and professor.

"There are a lot of hard feelings in science. People get scooped. It gets a bit cut-throat, because funding is so hard to get. Here, I have my own little niche," "she told the magazine. "And the support I get from the college is absolutely great."



June 20, 2014