Helen White
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Biography
I received an M. Chem degree in Chemistry from the University of Sussex, U.K. in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint program in 2006. After teaching Oceanography at Boston University for a year, I was awarded a Microbial Science Initiative postdoctoral fellowship in 2007 from Harvard University. I enjoy working in the field, collecting samples from rivers, salt marshes and other coastal environments (also known as playing with mud) and have participated in several research cruises.
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.
My Links
- LAB blog
Recent reports of the lab, research and adventures - Group website
Lab group website - MIT / WHOI
MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography - WHOI
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - Girguis Lab @ Harvard
The lab of Dr. Peter Girguis, Harvard University - MBL
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole - Periodic Table of Elements in the Ocean
MBARI Chemical Sensor Program
Courses: Fall 2009, Haverford
Chemistry
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Courses: Spring 2010, Haverford
Chemistry
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