I am an Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. As a microbial ecologist turned biogeochemist, I am broadly interested in the direct and indirect links between above- and belowground processes. Understanding the connectivity between these two systems is a critical component of our ability to predict the response of ecosystems to global climate change.
As a Masters student, my research was in the broader fields of microbial ecology and geomicrobiology. In my dissertation work, I maintained this connection to belowground systems and processes by pursuing questions that lay at the intersection of the fields of biogeochemistry, microbial ecology, and physiological plant ecology. My research at Hollins continues to address unanswered questions that stem from my dissertation work, and I have launched a new line of investigation that seeks to understand the linkage between rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbial communities and physiological plant ecology. This approach seeks to understand the intricacies of the connections between the Earth’s only two groups of primary producers: plants and microbes.
As a Masters student, my research was in the broader fields of microbial ecology and geomicrobiology. In my dissertation work, I maintained this connection to belowground systems and processes by pursuing questions that lay at the intersection of the fields of biogeochemistry, microbial ecology, and physiological plant ecology. My research at Hollins continues to address unanswered questions that stem from my dissertation work, and I have launched a new line of investigation that seeks to understand the linkage between rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbial communities and physiological plant ecology. This approach seeks to understand the intricacies of the connections between the Earth’s only two groups of primary producers: plants and microbes.
