We focus on understanding fundamental microbial interactions and conducting proof of concept work with utilities, public agencies, and startups.
Our work is exciting because there is so much unknown in the microbial world
Our work is important because life depends on water
Some of our current areas of interest:
How do microbes “hook-up” electrically and what kind of interactions and outcomes does this drive?
We want to understand this and use this knowledge to engineer sustainable water infrastructure.
Seeing is believing - we develop tools to observe and measure in real time and space how individual microbes within spatially-structured populations interact with minerals.
The insights we gain from observing the interface will inform systems ranging from subsurface energy to critical minerals to pollutant degradation.
How can our knowledge of microbes inform placement of dredged material? The Mississippi River Delta is shrinking but 77 million cubic yards of material are dredged in the New Orleans area every year.
Where we put this (and how) affects the microbiomes that provide coastal resilience and ecosystem services. This is microbial electrochemistry at the landscape-scale!