About me

I am a microbiologist working at the intersection of water engineering and public health. A theme of my work is to detect rare or unculturable organisms and make visible the invisible. I am interested in the broader application of advanced techniques such as high-throughput DNA sequencing, digital PCR, and flow cytometry to problems in drinking water and wastewater.

I value reproducibility, teamwork, and community in research. I enjoy consulting, collaborating with stakeholders, mentoring, and teaching.

Are you a researcher? Join the drinking-water-omics slack! See my post about the purpose of this slack here.

Education

Ph.D. in Microbiology (Banfield Lab), University of California, Berkeley (2016)
B.A. in Biology, Carleton College (2010)

Experience

I have over 8 years of experience working with high-throughput DNA sequencing data, including genome-resolved metagenomics, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and viruses in wastewater. My background in microbiology spans mining wastewater treatment research, discovery of novel CRISPR-Cas for industry, and advanced treatment of drinking water for potable reuse. I have worked in utility and consulting joint projects, international academic collaborations, and an early-stage biotech startup.

More recently, I have worked in the (re)emerging field of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for public health. From 2020-2022, I co-directed the COVID Wastewater Epidemiology for the Bay Area (COVID-WEB) at UC Berkeley, where I oversaw wastewater testing (RT-qPCR) and high-throughput sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 and variants, and liased with public health officials. Presently, I co-lead the Pandemic Readiness through Virus Epidemiology in Wastewater (PREViEW) project at UC Berkeley, in collaboration with UC Davis, UCSF, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory through the UC National Lab Fees Research Program. I am also a co-investigator on a WBE project funded by the US CDC.