Peter R. Girguis[1][2] is a professor in the department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he leads a lab that studies animals and microbes that live in extreme environments.

After receiving a Packard Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, he went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to work on anaerobic methane oxidation with Edward DeLong.

[9] As an MBARI postdoctoral fellow, Girguis and the members of the DeLong lab developed an artificial hydrocarbon seep to grow anaerobic methane oxidizing communities.

As such, the Girguis lab studies the physiological and biochemical adaptations of marine animals and microbes to their environment, their role in biogeochemical cycles, and their responses to a changing world.

[12] He also strives to make these tools available to the broader research community, including scientists at institutions of lesser means, with the goal of furthering scientific capabilities around the world.

In addition, Girguis and Paul McGuinness co-founded the Marine Science Internship Program [13] between the Cambridge Unified School District and Harvard University.