Professor Jose (Joe) Lopez’s research at the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center of Nova Southeastern University (GHOC NSU) in Dania Beach FL pivots on the action of genes/genomes, microbes and evolution. For over 20 years, his lab has applied genomics tools to address various specific questions in marine and aquatic invertebrate-microbial symbiosis, microbial ecology, forensics, metagenomics, gene expression of oil-exposed organisms, and systematics/phylogenetics. The Lopez laboratory composes part of the highly productive Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) funded DEEPEND consortium (DEEPENDconsortium.org) whose primary aim is to describe the biological diversity (from microbes to fishes), food webs and baseline levels after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). A specific aim has been to characterize GoM bacterioplankton diversity, including “symbiotic” interactions between bioluminescent microbes and their deep sea anglerfish host (https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/meet-tiny-bacteria-give-anglerfishes-their-spooky-glow). Professor Lopez was on the Porifera Tree of Life team for placing marine sponges on a global Tree of Life (www.PorToL.org). He was one of the founding members for the Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance or GIGA (http://GIGA-cos.org), which he continues to help coordinate and that applies genome sequencing and bioinformatics training to diverse non-model invertebrate species. GIGA is also part of the wider Earth Biogenome Project (https://www.earthbiogenome.org/) that has raised the ante to try and sequence all 1.5 million eukaryotes on the planet. More details can be viewed at https://cnso.nova.edu/overview/faculty-staff-profiles/jose_lopez.html.