I cannot understate how excited I am about this and how grateful I am to have this opportunity and for the help along the way.
My Plans
You can read my application material on the lab website, but I summarize the gist of it here.
My personal goals for this lab are simple:
Use what I’ve learned to make measurable impacts on understanding and managing the microbes around us
Create an energetic and productive environment for research
Mentor students to become outstanding researchers and people
I’m looking forward to continue some of my on-going research:
Understanding the awesome diversity of microbes around us and how to model and manage their impacts on our lives
Exploring the impacts of viruses on these communities and our health and environment
Development of methods for environmental omic-based methods, connecting the dots between sequencing technologies and understanding complex microbial communities
Some directions I’m looking forward to exploring include:
Moving beyond metagenomic discovery and characterization towards modeling and managing communities
Improving the available biomarkers to detect and quantify pathogens and antibiotic genes in the environment
Developing open-source eductational resources and classes making computational biology more assessible
Exploring big data and the role of microbial data in predictive agriculture
Many many more…I’m very much looking forward to all the collaborative opportunities at Iowa State.