Steve Pointing, Molecular Microbial Ecology. I am based at The University of Hong Kong and have been involved in several NASA projects during the past few years. My expertise lies in molecular microbial ecology and in particular the distribution and role of cyanobacteria in extreme environments. I have worked in diverse habitats ranging from volcanic calderas, to hot arid deserts and the Antarctic. I am enjoying my participation in the Pavilion Lake project very much. My role, together with my graduate student Olivia Chan, is to elucidate microbial community composition and spatio-temporal variation in microbialite structures.