Zac Cooper is a graduate student in the School of Oceanography and the Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington. His research focuses on understanding the interactions of bacteria and viruses in extremely cold environments with field work focusing on microbial communities in Arctic sea ice and cryopeg brines. Most of the ocean is cold, especially in the deep sea, and the microbes that inhabit these environments play key roles in global biogeochemical cycling. VISIONS’17 will be his first research cruise and exploration of the deep sea.