Current and Former Graduate Students

[ Postdoctoral Scholars | Current Graduate Students | Former Graduate Students ]

Current Graduate Students
	Jamie W. Becker Ph.D. Student in the labs of Repeta and DeLong MIT-WHOI Joint Program (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Themes I - IV. Becker is working to identify dissolved organic compounds present in the marine environment and determine how these compounds affect marine microbial diversity and metabolism. His primary goal is to link the production of organic compounds by major photoautotrophs to their utilization by microbial heterotrophs through the screening of organic compound libraries for microbial activity. Becker will isolate and characterize pure organic compounds for high-throughput screening from both axenic cultures as well as naturally occurring community samples in an effort to create a link between microbial substrate production and consumption.. Keywords: dissolved organic matter, bacterioplankton diversity, microbial metabolism, metabolic pathways, community genomics jamiewb@whoi.edu
	Jennifer R. Brum Ph.D. Student in Steward Lab University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) Theme I. Brum is currently working on new methods to separate and identify aquatic viruses in order to increase the efficiency of metagenomic analyses of viral diversity. Keywords: viruses, viral diversity, viral ecology jbrum@hawaii.edu
	Allison A. Fong Ph.D. Student in Kemp Lab University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) Themes I, II, and III. Fong is interested in studying the linkages between microbial assemblages, biogeochemical pathways, and how spatial and temporal variability influences our understanding of microbial ecology. Several topics which she finds exciting and hopes to incorporate into her studies include investigating the influence of mesoscale processes on microbial assemblages and the ecological significance of episodic events; evaluating the diversity and abundance of microbes linked to certain biogeochemical pathways, such as oceanic diazotrophs and their role in the nitrogen cycle; and applying a wide range of tools, from remote sensing to molecular analyses, to understand marine microbes at different scales. Keywords: bacteria, gene expression, nitrogen fixation, mesoscale processes, community dynamics fonga@hawaii.edu
	Darin H. Hayakawa Ph.D. Student in Rappé Lab University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) Themes I – IV. Marine microbial biodiversity is Hayakawa’s overarching interest. His primary objective is to develop and utilize a broad array of cultivation independent methods to assess microbial community diversity and structure at Station Aloha in a time- and depth-dependent fashion. These results will guide his secondary objective: to employ directed techniques to isolate and propagate cultures of ecologically relevant target microbes from Station Aloha. Keywords: picoplankton, diversity, spatiotemporal, molecular ecology, cultivation, metabolism, genomics darin@hawaii.edu
	Annette M. Hynes Ph.D. Student in the labs of Doney and Waterbury MIT-WHOI Joint Program (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Themes I, II, and IV. Hynes is investigating the diversity of the marine nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. She is characterizing cultured strains using pigment analysis, microscopy, and gene sequences. The gene sequences will be used to develop a quantitative method for detecting different clades of Trichodesmium in the water column for transects across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This data will be used to develop a stochastic competition model incorporating different types of Trichodesmium. Keywords: cyanobacteria, diversity, ecosystem modeling, nitrogen fixation, Trichodesmium ahynes@whoi.edu
	Binglin Li Ph.D. Student in the labs of Karl and Church University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) Theme I and II. Li’s interests focus on diatom bloom dynamics in the open ocean. He looks forward to examining the diversity of diatoms and the interaction between diatoms and their endosymbiotic nitrogen fixers by developing molecular methodologies. Keywords: diatom, bloom, dynamics, nitrogen fixation, endosymbiosis lbinglin@gmail.com
	Donn A. Viviani Ph.D. Student in the labs of Karl and Church University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) Themes I, II, and III. Viviani is interested in linking community respiration, production, and biogeochemical cycling. He is also interested in investigating how microbial production rates and activity change over time and with respect to climate variability. Keywords: microbial activity, biogeochemistry, primary and secondary production viviani@hawaii.edu
	Jacob R. Waldbauer Ph.D. Student in Chisholm Lab MIT-WHOI Joint Program (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Themes I, II, and IV. Waldbauer’s work focuses on the use of molecular and isotopic techniques, especially quantitative proteomics, in studying the mechanistic underpinnings of biogeochemical processes. Topics of particular interest include circadian expression patterns in the marine water column, modes of planktonic nutrient uptake and cellular biochemical stoichiometries. Keywords: proteomics, Prochlorococcus, biogeochemistry, cytometry jwal@mit.edu
Former Graduate Students
	Matthew B. Sullivan Sullivan is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson; visit the Sullivan Lab web site . Former C-MORE Postdoctoral Scholar Previous affilitation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) C-MORE Participation: Themes I and II. Sullivan used metagenomic approaches to investigate marine viral genomic diversity, as well as high-throughput virus isolations and genomic sequencing to focus on the “population genomics” of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus viruses (cyanophages).