[3] In 2000, she obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution joint program.
[2][3] Rocap conducts marine research in various locations such as Puget Sound and the South Atlantic Ocean.
[3] Her work focuses on the evolution and ecology of marine bacteria and how these organisms contribute to the Earth's carbon and nutrient cycling process.
[5] Together with Jaclyn Saunders, Rocap studied organisms in parts of the ocean that have no measurable oxygen.
[6] Based on samples collected near Mexico, they found arsenic-breathing microbes and these included two genetic pathways that are able to gain energy by converting arsenic-based molecules.