Congratulations our students who have achieved their M.S. and Ph.D. degrees!

We'd like to recognize the following students who have graduated in the time since our last Small Talk newsletter was published.

2021-22

Christine Tataru (David Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Harnessing Heterogeneity in Human Gut Microbiomes”) and graduated with her Ph.D. in Winter 2022. She is currently continuing her research as a Data Scientist at Harvard University in the Gerber Lab.

Quinn Washburn (Giovannoni and Sharpton Labs) successfully defended his dissertation (“High-Throughput Microbial Cultivation: A New Approach for Cultivating Consortia of Interacting Microbial Taxa”) and graduated with his Ph.D. in Spring 2022. He is now a Lab Supervisor at Pima Community College and a tabletop game designer.

2022-23

Benjamin Americus (Atkinson Lab) successfully defended his dissertation (“How Do Parasites Infect Salmon? Comparative Transcriptomics Reveal Myxozoan Adaptations for Parasitism”) and graduated with his Ph.D. in Spring 2023. Ben is now working as a Fisheries Biologist for the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council in Alaska, where he performs research and advocacy for salmon populations that have been utilized for thousands of years. This winter, Ben is using genomic methods learned at OSU to help answer questions about historic salmon populations in the Chickaloon area.

Elizabeth (Libby) Brennan (Giovannoni Lab) successfully defended her thesis (“Uptake of 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (HMP) by the Cosmopolitan Marine Bacteria SAR11 Strain HTCC7211”), and graduated with her M.S. in Spring 2023. She is now working as a Research Associate in the Biology department at Reed College.

Jessica Buser-Young (Colwell Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Biogeochemical Processing of Freshwater Carbon in the Anthropocene”) and graduated with her Ph.D. in December 2023. She remained at OSU until September 2024 as a Research Associate studying microbial communities in deep marine sediments rich in methane hydrates. She is now a Research Associate at the University of Alaska Anchorage, optimizing processes for extracting lanthanide metals from surface exposures of coal seams.

Andrew Chapman presented his research in “The Potential for Healthcare and Industrial Cleanroom Modernization Brought by Genomics” and graduated with his M.S. in Spring 2023. Currently, he is a Director of Quality and Sustainability at Modo, Inc.

Lindsay Collart (Halsey Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Chemical and Genetic Investigations of Toxic Freshwater Cyanobacterial Blooms for Improved Monitoring and Understanding of Lake Ecology”) in Spring 2023. She is currently a Molecular Geneticist at BIOGEN Lab Developments as the lead research scientist.

Grace Deitzler (David Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Of Mice and Bees: Examining the Impact of Multiple Stressors on Host Physiology, Behavior, and Gut Microbiome and graduated with her Ph.D. in Spring 2023. She is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Ingber Lab at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

Emily Schmeltzer (Rebecca and Vega Thurber Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Leveraging Innovative Methods in Environmental Metagenomics for Large-Scale Spatiotemporal Coral Virome Characterizations Across Reefscapes in the Anthropocene”) and graduated with her PhD. in Summer 2023. Emily is now a Research Biologist at the Eastern Ecological Science Center (EESC) at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge.

Parker Smith (Schuster Lab) successfully defended his dissertation (“The Social Interactions of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa”) and graduated with his Ph.D. in Winter 2023. He is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Diggle Lab at Georgia Tech.

Sarah Wolf (Giovannoni and Chan Labs) successfully defended her dissertation (“Microbial Life Below the Hypoxic Barrier”) and graduated with her Ph.D. in Spring 2024. She is currently an Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellow working with Surfrider Foundation’s Newport Chapter on a project focused on marine debris from the oyster aquaculture industry in Yaquina Bay.

Samantha “Sam” Varada (David Lab) successfully defended her thesis (“Investigating cell-cell interactions of enteroendocrine cells and the gut microbiota and improving technical applications of primary cell culture”) and graduated with her M.S. in Spring 2023. Sam is currently a Lab Technician at OHSU.

2023-24

Elliott Cameron (Alexander and Hallett Labs) successfully defended his thesis (“Spatiotemporal Distribution of Ceratonova shasta, Parvicapsula minibicornis, and their invertebrate host, Manayunkia occidentalis, in the Klamath River”) and graduated with his M.S. in Spring 2024. Elliott is now an Assistant Specialist at the University of California Santa Barbara, researching coral reefs.

Connor Draney (Vega Thurber Lab) successfully defended his thesis (“Altered Symbiodiniaceae Community Dynamics in Acropora retusa Corals in Mo’orea, French Polynesia Under Heat and Nutrient Stress”) and graduated with his M.S. in Spring 2024.

Austin Hammer (Sharpton Lab) successfully defended his dissertation (“Gut Microbiome Data Integration Reveals Microbial Connections to Vertebrate Physiology and Evolution”) and graduated with his Ph.D. in Summer 2024. Austin is currently biking across Vietnam with his spouse prior to starting a career in industry.

Finn Lawless (Schuster Lab) successfully defended his thesis (“Genetic Analysis of QslA Mediated Hypervirulence in Pseudomonas Aeruginosa”) and graduated with his M.S. in Spring 2024. He is currently an aspiring biotechnologist in Carlsbad, California.

Savanah Leidholt (Vega Thurber Lab) successfully defended her dissertation (“Leveraging RNA-Sequencing to Characterize Host Response and Microbial Community Dynamics in a Unique Scombrid Disease”) and graduated with her Ph.D. in Summer 2024.

Laura Nutter (Rowe Lab) successfully defended her thesis (“Consequences of Influenza A Virus on Pneumococcal Biofilm Formation and Stability in the Absence of Host Factors”) and graduated with her M.S. in Fall 2023. She is now a Faculty Research Assistant at the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine at OSU in the Johns Lab.

Sebastian Singleton (Giovannoni and Sharpton Labs) successfully defended his dissertation (“From Colonization to Utilization: Bacterial Interactions with Polyolefin Plastics”) in Summer 2024. Sebastian and his wife Angela have planted their roots in Kennewick, Washington, as he further pursues a career in federal scientific research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He plans to implement and improve on the molecular biology skills and synthetic techniques he acquired previously as a PNNL distinguished graduate research program (DGRP) fellow.

Alex Vompe (Vega Thurber and Sharpton Labs) successfully defended his dissertation (“Disturbance Histories Structure the Microbiome's Role in Coral Success”) and graduated with his Ph.D. in Summer 2024. He is now a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State, studying blotching disease in white button mushrooms.

Jacob Wynne (Thurber Lab) successfully defended his thesis (“Putative Denitrification-Mediated Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane Alongside Aerobic Methanotrophy on an Antarctic Cold Seep”) and graduated with his M.S. in Summer 2024. He is now a Ph.D. fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.