Research Appointments
2025-present – Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
2022-2025 – Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
2020-2022 – Ph.D. Student and Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT
2018-2020 – Research Assistant, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT

Summons Lab for Geobiology and Astrobiology | 2018-present

• Projects:

  • Compound-specific carbon isotope fractionation patterns of diverse cyanobacterial lipids (ongoing)

  • Human gut microbiome lipid analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (ongoing)

  • Biosignatures of diverse eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue environment in Antarctica

  • Niche expansion for phototrophic sulfur bacteria at the Proterozoic–Phanerozoic transition

  • Microbial biomarkers reveal a hydrothermally active landscape at Olduvai Gorge at the dawn of the Acheulean, 1.7 Ma

• Skills: Lipid biomarker analysis of modern and ancient sediments via GC-QQQ-MS, GC-MSD, GC-FID, GC-C-IRMS, and LC-QTOF-MS

Fournier Lab for Molecular Phylogenomics and Microbial Evolution | 2020-present

• Projects:

  • Timing the advent of aerobic respiration with cytochrome oxidases (ongoing)

  • Evolutionary history of cyanobacterial pigments (ongoing)

  • Toward a natural history of microbial life

• Skills: Phylogenetic ree reconstruction and molecular clock analysis employing BLAST, MAFFT, IQTREE, minimal ancestor deviation (MAD) rooting, Phylobayes

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Biosignatures of diverse eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue environment in Antarctica | Nature Communications 2025

• Impact of wildfires on Gondwanan flora during the Permian–Triassic transition | Geochemical Perspectives Letters 2025

• Toward a natural history of microbial life | Annual Reviews - Earth and Planetary Sciences 2024

• Diversifying representations of female scientists on social media: A case study from the Women Doing Science Instagram | Social Media + Society 2022

• Marine and terrestrial nitrifying bacteria are sources of diverse bacteriohopanepolyols | Geobiology 2022

• Niche expansion for phototrophic sulfur bacteria at the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition | PNAS 2020

• Microbial biomarkers reveal a hydrothermally active landscape at Olduvai Gorge at the dawn of the Acheulean, 1.7 Ma | PNAS 2020

Origins of Life Seminar Series (Co-Instructed January 2020)