I am an Associate Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I received a B.S. in Biology (2003) and M.S. in Microbiology (2007) at Idaho State University. My Masters Thesis was characterizing microbes that form biofilms at very acidic water. This research project cemented my love for extreme microbes. I then moved to Oregon State University for a Ph.D. in Oceanography (2011) where my dissertation focused on microbes found in marine sediments that have gas hydrates. I was then a C-DEBI Postdoctoral Fellow at Miami University and worked on hot springs in China. In 2015, I moved to Alaska to start my own research group in microbes that live in extreme environments. My group uses a variety of molecular, physiological, microscopic, and bioinformatic techniques to characterize microbes. We combine field studies from around Alaska and the world with laboratory and bioinformatic processing to understand how these microbes survive in harsh conditions.
Anchorage, AK
United States