The intimate interaction between microbial life and earth leaves specific chemical signatures that record information on microbial activity, and paleo-environmental conditions. As a geobiologist, my goal is to interpret these signatures and reconstruct an accurate picture of paleo-environments and microbial communities, and the nature of their co-evolution through time. To date, I have focused on the sedimentary biogeochemical sulfur cycle and its main metabolic pathways: microbial sulfate reduction and microbial sulfur disproportionation. These run the reductive and oxidative branches of the sedimentary sulfur biogeochemical cycle, respectively. As such, they respond to and track the evolution of Earth’s surface redox conditions. Deconstructing the net preserved isotopic signature into its individual metabolic components requires a thorough understanding of the biochemistry of each, and of the environmental information enclosed in their specific sulfur isotopic signatures. For this, I apply a wide range of research tools. These include stable isotope geochemistry, environmental observations, pure culture microbial experiments (using both wild-type and deletion mutant strains), modeling of intracellular dynamics, and construction of three-dimensional models of crucial proteins in these key metabolic pathways.

For more details on current projects and a list of publications, please visit my website!