Dijanna Figueroa: from the lab to the big screen: a marine biologist emerges to co-star in Aliens of the Deep

THE story of how Dijanna Figueroa, a marine biologist, came to play an important role in the cool 3-D IMAX movie Aliens of the Deep began in a lab about a year and a half ago.

While at the University of California, Santa Barbara, working on her doctoral degree about animals that live in extreme environments, a film crew contacted the school about making a documentary on the same subject. Her advisor asked if she would allow a film crew to shoot some footage of her in the lab. She agreed.

"It turned out to be an impromptu screen test," she recalls excitedly. "Before I knew it, I was on a plane to St. John's, Canada. That's when I discovered it was a gigantic movie production with James Cameron [the Oscar winner] as one of the directors."

The film made its debut earlier this year to rave reviews. And Figueroa's image is plastered on advertising posters across the nation. Aliens of the Deep has transformed the life of the low-key 26-year-old scientist to that of a high-profile ambassador for her science--marine biology, the study of life in the ocean. She has seized the opportunity to encourage and inspire young African-Americans to pursue careers in science.

"I know when everybody thinks of the scientist, they think of the glasses and the lab coat, but we also have a lot of fun," says Figueroa. "Science is also about getting into the field and seeing things in strange places that people have never seen before."

The film presents captivating footage of a series of expeditions to deep-ocean hydrothermal vents, where superhot water gives birth to an extraordinary array of creatures, including 6-foot-long worms with blood-red plumes, blind white crabs and white shrimp, all seeking comfortable locations in near-boiling temperatures.

Figueroa and other scientists witnessed this fascinating underworld when they plunged to the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in so-called submersibles, which resemble mini submarines, equipped with cameras, capturing about 300 hours of footage. Each scientist was asked to describe aloud what they witnessed. The film's goal was to illustrate what it might be like to travel into space and encounter life in other worlds.

"It's an amazing experience," says Figueroa. "As you get deeper, it starts to get darker and darker until the sun goes away and it's almost pitch black. You look out the window and you see bioluminescents, which emit light from their bodies. After two and a half hours, you reach the bottom, where you see mussels, shrimp and tube worms. They are doing chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis, which means they live independent of the sun."

Figueroa's love of science started as a child. At David Starr Jordan High School in Long Beach, Calif., fellow classmates affectionately referred to her as "dolphin girl," she says, because she loved the water.

"My yearbook says, 'Good luck being a marine biologist," she says. "It's what I truly wanted. When I was little, I used to go to the tide pools and touch the sea stars and wonder what they were doing. How did they make a living?"

She credits her success to her parents: Dion Smotherman, an artist, and Joseph Smotherman, the pastor of Faithworks Community Church in Inglewood, Calif. Figueroa grew up in the ethnically diverse community of Long Beach, where she says her parents encouraged her and her younger brother, Jeremy, to follow their dreams, and they instilled within them the discipline they needed to achieve excellence. "I have an amazing support system with my family," she says.

From an early age, her parents remember Figueroa as a go-getter. Her father recalled a time when she was in high school and decided to go out for the cheerleading squad. "I was worried because it was hip-hop dancing, and you know young girls can be ruthless toward one another," Smotherman says. "But she made it. We were so proud. Historically, she's always pushed herself to accomplish what she put her mind to."

Figueroa received a bachelor's of science in marine biology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001. During her last year of studies, she interned at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and began grappling with the complex questions associated with life in the deep sea, which led her to her current studies.

Now, she sometimes spends 12-hour days inside a lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara, clad in a white lab coat and sporting protective eye goggles as she analyzes data and conducts experiments. Many of the experiments observe the metabolism and protein expressions of animals in controlled conditions over very long periods of time.

Despite her rigorous schedule, Figueroa finds ways to make time for a social life. She and her husband, Aldo, met when she was a freshman at UCLA. They are loving and supportive of each other, she says, and they like to relax and unwind by doing ballroom dancing and dining out. Their favorite foods range from Cajun to Mexican to Indian to soul food. When she's alone, Figueroa loves to read, adding that Maya Angelou is one of her favorite authors.