David Bryant
Field & Lab Assistant

I am a volunteer assistant for field and laboratory work, and have been lucky to participate in two previous Spaceward Bound programs helping my wife, Elaine Pressly Bryant, carry out activities associated with her research into microbial life in arid environments.  My field experience includes soil sampling and gathering critical location data so sites can be accurately revisited over long time scales.  In the laboratory I've cultured soil bacteria, innoculated microbial characterization plates, and prepared samples for DNA extraction.
 
By profession I am a computer engineer and have worked in the high technology industry for thirty years.  I have Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  After completing graduate research in image processing and pattern recognition I worked for fourteen years at Bell Laboratories developing advanced signal processing and pattern analysis software as well as computer graphics systems and application software platforms.  Since 1993 I have been employed at Sun Microsystems in both Engineering and Marketing management roles on a variety of internet server and Java client products.  Spaceward Bound has given me an unexpected and exciting opportunity to apply my analytical computing expertise in support of other participants' scientific investigations.
 
In addition I have strong personal interests in astronomy, digital photography, computers, and mapping, all of which have found outlets as part of Spaceward Bound.