South Suburban African American is Top Bacteria Science Researcher
Jarrad Hampton-Marcell enjoyed dissecting worms as a youngster in south suburban Robbins, Ill.
“I was one of those always curious kids,” Hampton- Marcell recalled. “I was pulling out worms and would play with them. I would dissect them to see what was going on.”
Hampton-Marcell’s curiosity now is shaking up the international science community.
The 28-year-old Dolton resident is now a top scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill.
In recent months, he received high profile attention for his research.
In May, Chicago Crain magazine listed Hampton-Marcell in its prestigious “20 in their 20s” list, for his science work.
And last month, Hampton-Marcell was mentioned in a Time magazine article for his work on using bacteria to help solve crimes.
“He has been a leader in the development of techniques for characterizing bacteria,” said Jack Gilbert, a University of Chicago professor and group leader of microbial ecology, the study of bacteria, at Argonne National Laboratory. “He is amazing…He has revolutionized how we do science.”
Hampton-Marcell is one the top 10 scientists in the world in how he extracts DNA out of bacteria and how he analyzes it, Gilbert added.
“He decodes it and determines what they do,” Gilbert said.
Hampton-Marcell, a research coordinator at Argonne, is involved in several projects including one for ExxonMobil that involves using microbes to remove nitrogen. Nitrogen hampers the refining process of crude oil.
Hampton-Marcell is working with U of C Medicine on research that tracks bacteria. He is also studying bacteria that lives in the gut of athletes.
Hampton-Marcell, himself, was a starting quarterback during his senior year at Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Ill.
He also was a walk on football player at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But after an injury, he focused all his time on academics.
At the college, Hampton-Marcell got his bachelor’s in molecular and cellular biology and his master’s in integrative biology.
He currently is working on his Ph.D in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Aside from attending classes and work, the married father of one, is also co-director of Argonne’s involvement with an NAACP program that encourages youth to seek science careers.
The youngsters have been successful in his program. In the last two years, the youth have won 20 medals in NAACP regional contests.
“You don’t have a lot of minorities in science and math,” Hampton-Marcell said. “I very rarely see brothers and sisters in these fields. And if you live in Robbins, you probably don’t know about these kinds of programs.”
As a result, Hampton-Marcell said he does what he can to encourage
African-American youth to pursue careers in science.
“(Hampton-Marcell) is a genuine person with a big heart and big brain,” Gilbert quipped.
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