Melody Lindsay, PhD

Education

A.B. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 2013

Ph.D. Microbiology, Montana State University, 2019

Research Interests

My research interests in geomicrobiology are focused on the metabolic potential and contributions of microbial communities to biogeochemical cycles. I use novel, state of the art techniques to generate and analyze genomic and phenomic information of microbial community diversity and function within an evolutionary framework, integrated with geochemical and physical aspects in "extreme" environments.

My funded work centers these ecosystems, where ongoing research aims to quantify respiration of single cells in the deep biosphere (including sediment-hosted ecosystems), detect microbial activity, and reveal genomic information. I apply my methods and findings to astrobiology to better understand how life on Earth functions, and how life might function on other ocean worlds.