NSF Postdoctoral Fellow

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD

Education and Academic Positions

  • Ph.D. in Geobiology — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2020)

  • B.A. in Geosciences — Smith College (2015)

  • NSF Postdoctoral Fellow — Johns Hopkins University (2023 — present)

  • Postdoctoral Fellow — California Institute of Technology (2021 — 2023)

  • Postdoctoral Fellow — NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (2020 — 2021)

About Me

I am fascinated by the intricate connections between microbial life and the environment and how life and the planet have evolved together over billions of years of Earth history. As an interdisciplinary geobiologist, I tap into modern and ancient records of this coevolution to ask fundamental questions about early life, ancient environments, and how the biosphere evolved alongside and influenced changing environments through time.

I was first introduced to the mysteries of the Proterozoic biosphere as an undergraduate at Smith College. I used the microfossil record to investigate the Neoproterozoic biosphere and the response of the biosphere to the Snowball Earth Event.

As a graduate student, I learned to tap into another archive of the evolution of life: the modern microbial biosphere. I was curious about the Proterozoic microfossil record and the evolution of life during this Eon, particularly cyanobacteria – the microbes responsible for oxygenic photosynthesis and one of the major primary producers on our modern and ancient planet. Through fossilization experiments (experimental geobiology), I realized how much we can learn from modern organisms about how microbes in the past may have interacted with, responded to, and shaped their environments.

These two archives of the history of life (the microfossil record and modern microbes) are the cornerstones of my research. Since completing my Ph.D., I have continued to integrate both experimental geobiology and the sedimentary and microfossil records in an attempt to better understand early ecosystems and the coevolution of life and the environment. I have studied microbial stress responses, microbially mediated geochemical cycles and mineral forming mechanisms, and microfossil assemblages that preserve a record of ecosystems across marine and terrestrial environments from the Proterozoic to the Cretaceous.

My current and future research will continue to tap into these modern and ancient archives to conduct interdisciplinary research aimed at reconstructing ancient ecosystems and past environments. Through this work, I hope to better understand the evolution of the environment and the biosphere on Earth and extend this research to astrobiology and the search for life outside of our planet.

Past and Current Lab Group Affiliations: