Jill Ann Mikucki is an American microbiologist, educator and Antarctic researcher, best known for her work at Blood Falls demonstrating that microbes can grow below ice in the absence of sunlight.

[4] A life-long love of cold and snow helped lead her to a career in Antarctic research.

[5] Mikucki conducted her Ph.D. research on Blood Falls, a plume of iron-oxide rich water that flows from beneath the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.

Mikucki's work demonstrated that microbes can grow below ice in the absence of sunlight by using sulfate and iron to help them metabolize organic matter.

[1][2] Her continuing work at Blood Falls[8][9] led to the discovery of a network of salty groundwater beneath Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys, which is likely the source of the Blood Falls outflow, and a habitat for subsurface microorganisms.