Up Close: GLERL’s Hank Vanderploeg

35 Years and Still Cutting-Edge

Liz Klimas
NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

July 23, 2009 — Hank Vanderploeg recalls being completely relaxed as he gazed through a microscope at a 1 mm-long organism while holding a bottle of instant glue in one hand and a pair of forceps in the other.

He was conducting an experiment designed to demonstrate Vanderploeg’s notion that zooplankton — microscopic organisms that float freely in both salt- and freshwater — detect food particles by using mechanoreceptors (pressure-senstive sensors), in contrast to a previous theory suggesting the organisms used their sense of smell.

To debunk that theory, Vanderploeg, an ecologist with NOAA’s Great LakesEnvironmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), would use high-speed microcinematography (videotaping through a camera-fitted microscope) to document what he considered the zooplankton’s rather predictable feeding behavior.

But, there was one problem: how would he keep the ever-mobile zooplankton stationary within the camera’s field of view?

“Cat hair and Krazy Glue^®,” says Vanderploeg, as a matter of fact. “It took me eight hours to tether three zooplankton to the hairs each day.”

When glued to the backs of zooplankton, the cat hairs served as tiny leashes that could be gripped by Vanderploeg’s small forceps. His tedious, unconventional approach worked. By the end of the experiment, completed in 1980s, Vanderploeg had amassed 200 rolls of zooplankton film footage.

Distinction, in More Ways Than One

Vanderploeg’s innovative research methods recently won him a third OAR Environmental Research Laboratories Outstanding Scientific Paper in 2008. Only four have been awarded to GLERL scientists to date. He earned his first award for his work on zooplankton feeding mechanisms; his most recent award recognized his research relating to the effects of winter storms on Lake Michigan’s ecosystem.

The GLERL ecologist also bears another distinction: he holds the record as the GLERL employee with the longest tenure. He started at the lab in 1974, just after the lab was established in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“People see him as a fixture of the lab,” said GLERL Ecologist Jim Liebig. “I don't think there is anyone who has been here as long as he has.”

“I can remember the old converted factory where two coworkers and I sat in offices with only card tables and telephones,” recalls Vanderploeg. “It was not designed to be a lab — it [the lab’s first building] was just supposed to be a temporary space for maybe a year or so.”

The lab has since moved twice within Ann Arbor, most recently to a new building in January, and for 35 years, Vanderploeg has been along for the ride. The only time you won’t find him there is around 11 a.m. when he’s at the gym (he does three days a week of aerobics and two days of weights). A creature of habit, he eats yogurt and fruit nearly every day for lunch, and when you smell popcorn — that’s him. 

Success Beyond Expectations

Vanderploeg was not always a science wiz who daydreamed about new experiments.

“I was not a good student in high school,” Vanderploeg said. “I never studied; I spent my time fishing and hunting.”

Ultimately, a fear of failure motivated Vanderploeg to excel academically. A biology major in college, he went on to study limnology — the study of inland waters — as a master’s student and, eventually, oceanography for his Ph.D.

When Vanderploeg came to GLERL, he was asked to start the most innovative ecology program he could, despite that fact that he was not trained in ecology.

“This was probably the most exciting and challenging part of my career,” says Vanderploeg. “There were post-docs trained in this sort of thing who would have killed to do the kind of research I was doing here, and I had no prior experience in it.”

Thirty-five years later, Vanderploeg has expertly cultivated an extensive research portfolio that includes studies relating to the effects of invasive mussels and zooplankton on food web disruption; harmful algal blooms; and zooplankton-fish interactions. He’s not ready to throw in the towel any time soon.

“One of the pleasures working for NOAA has been the ability to carry out fundamental research on problems of real importance to the environment,” says Vanderploeg. “Being around a long time has meant saying goodbye to colleagues who have retired or are about to. But, it’s balanced by working with newer colleagues who have high energy and new skills to attack the challenges we face.”