11
JODY REIMER MAT HE M AT I CAL BI OLOG Y A DDS UP by CJ SIEBENECK
THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN
Fred Adler and Ken Golden before
on a terrestrial-like substrate.” As an
BIOLOGY AND MATH MAY SEEM
joining the faculty of both academic
environment, sea ice is very dynamic.
LIKE A L ARGE DIVIDE, BUT IN
units in 2022.
If the air temperature changes by ten degrees, the physical characteristics
REALIT Y, THESE DISCIPLINES GIVE RISE TO FASCINATING
“My work is very interdisciplinary,”
of the ice changes as it melts or
RESEARCH APPROACHES.
Reimer says. “I typically collaborate
freezes in response to the change in
with biologists, but it was harder to
temperature. That also changes the
Jody Reimer, an assistant professor
meet folks in biology while working
fluid permeability of the ice, thus
at the U, has double appointments
strictly in the math department.”
changing the microbial habitat in
in biology and math. “Biology is very
Reimer works on ecological research
dramatic ways.
messy,” Reimer states. “There’s this
projects, associated with sea ice.
feeling of wanting to find universal
“What the environment looks like
principles or general theories. There’s
Sea ice is considered the “soil of the
determines what can grow there,”
nothing that refines your thinking
ocean,” as Reimer puts it. The algae
Reimer states. “The little algal cells in the
better than having to write something
within sea ice are “more similar to a
ice are also ecosystem engineers. They
down as an equation.”
terrestrial system of plants growing
secrete these exopolymer substances
than they are to a marine system.
to protect themselves, and that ‘goo’
So marine organisms are growing
changes the physics of the ice.”
Reimer is from a small town in Manitoba and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba. From there, she completed her master’s degree at the University of Oxford. “It’s like the Disneyland of academics,” she jokes, referring to the prestigious university, the oldest in the Englishspeaking world. “It feels like you’re in a movie about being an academic.” She then moved back to Canada and completed her PhD at the University of Alberta before coming to the U as a postdoctoral researcher to work with
Reimer measures a polar bear's head in the field. Credit: Jody Reimer
RESEARCH | 2023
