Research

My doctoral work was advised by Dr. Timothy Eglinton and Dr. Christopher Reddy and focused on utilizing variations in natural abundance radiocarbon and stable carbon of different fractions of sediments to examine the distribution, chemical associations and overall fate of marine, terrestrial and fossil fuel-derived organic matter in the marine environment.

At Harvard University, with Dr. Peter Girguis in the department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and in collaboration with Clare Reimers at Oregon State University, I investigated how energy can be harnessed from the microbial metabolism of carbon in the ocean via microbial fuel cells placed in sediments, hydrothermal vents and surface water plankton blooms. This research focused on quantifying the different groups of microbes that contribute either directly or indirectly to power production and the relationship between microbial community structure and the chemistry of the environment.

At Haverford I plan to incorporate both my geochemical and microbiological backgrounds to examine and enhance our understanding of the role that microbes and minerals play in the cycling of natural and anthropogenic carbon compounds in the environment.