ORCID 0009-0000-4911-0321 // LinkedIn
I am a Ph.D. candidate co-advised by Daniel and Katie Fixen. My research looks at biofilm formation and corrosion by the methanogenic archaeon Methanococcus maripaludis. Archaea are weird not-bacteria not-eukaryotes, instead perched on their own branch of the tree of life only known to science since the 1970s. There are also no known archaeal pathogens. Consequently, we don't know as much about their physiology as we do disease-causing microbes in Bacteria and Eukarya. They don't care about our implicit biases, though, so they still live everywhere and do a bunch of interesting stuff... like stick to the inside of oil pipelines and mine the steel for energy. So, I'm here trying to figure out how they do that.
I grew up on the edge of the Twin Cities suburbs and started my academic career at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, later transferring to the University of Minnesota, Duluth for a B.S. in Biochemistry. I did research in Dr. Liz Minor's lab at Large Lakes Observatory looking at quantifying microplastics in beach sand. I had always been interested in environmental science, but wanted to pursue something more biological. In my final semester, I took a molecular biology class and was introduced to the wonderful world of microorganisms, which led me to pursue environmental microbiology! After graduating in 2020, I worked at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in the SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction lab pipetting snot while applying to Ph.D. programs. Now here I am :)
Outside of the lab, I am very passionate about art and science communication — I try to bring these two things to work as often as I can, to remind everyone that scientists can be creative, too (in fact, they need to be!) One of my favorite things to do is make promotional material for clubs and courses - see the Bug Club sticker design below!! My other hobbies include the other usual nerd hobbies: hiking, D&D, etc. I also really love dinosaurs.
