Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL)
As a soil microbiologist, I am curious about microbial life in the cold regions of the planet. Much of my research starts in the field, and I have experience leading successful field campaigns in the sub-Arctic and Arctic. My research includes study the permafrost microbiome, cold-loving microbes for advanced military applications, terrestrial signals and sensing, and bioremediation in cold regions. With collaborators, I write competitive grants to explore the intricate relationships among microorganisms and their surrounding environment, including how they respond to disturbance events. I take a holistic systems-based approach by combining empirical laboratory and field measurements with stand-off sensing techniques and modeling efforts. In doing so, I answer ecosystem-level research questions such as shifts in microbial communities and processes as a result of extreme weather. By generating high-resolution microbial sequencing and metagenomics data, my collaborators and I attempt to statistically describe the natural environment and how it changes with perturbations, particularly in extreme environments such as the cold.