Skip to content
Steve Vollmer
Assistant Professor of Biology
781.581.7370, x312
Expertise
Evolutionary Ecology, Genetics and Speciation, molecular biology, Reef-Corals

Steve Vollmer in the Press

Steve Vollmer for Northeastern Global News

A white coral.

What’s killing corals? Northeastern professor uses machine learning to identify a suspected pathogen 

Steven Vollmer says a berry-shaped bacterium is the likely cause of white band disease pushing some coral nearly to the brink of extinction.
Three people play in the ocean at the beach on a sunny day.

What is a rip current, and how can you survive if you get caught in one?

Nineteen people have died at beaches in the U.S. this year from rip currents. Northeastern experts offer rip current survival tips.
White corals in Steven Vollmer's lab.

Can reefs be designed for immunity? Genetic research is identifying disease-resistant super corals in the Caribbean

Northeastern scientist Steven Vollmer has new research that rates staghorn corals from Panama and Florida on their genetic resistance to a plague that has nearly wiped them out. The goal is reef restoration.

3Qs: What coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef means for the world

Marine scientists in Australia recently reported that 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef is now bleached. Northeastern’s Steven Vollmer explains why the condition, typically the result of warming ocean temperatures, could lead to “the ocean’s equivalent of a rainforest with no trees.”

What’s wiping out the Caribbean corals?

Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn and Felicia Aronson, two student-researchers at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, turned to crowdfunding to support their work on examining white-band disease, which has killed up to 95 percent of the Caribbean’s reef building corals.

Snail travels unknown evolutionary path

A biology graduate student collaborates on a DNA study of a marine periwinkle that offers new insight into how some species evolve.