PhD Graduates
Yang Oh Jin: Yang joined the group in Spring 2005. He defended his dissertation in March 2009. His PhD work addresses the mechanisms involved in the evolution of vinyl chloride (VC)-assimilating bacteria . He is now a postdoctoral student working on our SERDP contract.
Joshua Livermore: Joshua joined the group in Spring 2008. He is a PhD candidate studying how subsurface microbial communities in RDX-contaminated groundwater respond to biostimulation with acetate.
Yi Liang: Yi joined the group in Fall 2008. She is a PhD candidate analyzing PCB-contaminated sediments for the presence and activity of PCB-degrading bacteria with PCR-based and proteomics techniques.
Anne Alexander: Anne received her PhD in December 2010. Her project involved discovering and characterizing biocatalysts from with the aptly named Polaromonas sp. strain JS666, the only known cDCE-assimilating microbe. She is currently a postdoctoral student in Jerry Schnoor's lab here at UIowa.
Adina Chuang: Adina defended her dissertation in August 2009 and is currently a postdoctoral student working with James Tiedje at Michigan State University.
MS Graduates
Meredith Dobson: Meredith joined the group in Fall 2009. She is a MS student developing real-time PCR methods for quantifying methanotroph abundance at VC-contaminated sites.
Christine Lee: Christine joined the group in Fall 2010. She is a MS student working on VC degradation by methanotrophs and etheneotrophs in the presence of methane and ethene mixtures.
Carmen Owens: Carmen joined the group in Fall 2006. She investigated theproduct toxicity of epoxyalkane production by alkene monooxygenase in Nocardioides sp. strain JS614. Carmen defended her MS thesis in December 2008 (Congratulations Carmen!) and is currently working in Keri Hornbuckle's lab.
Undergraduates and Rotating Students
Alex Potter: Alex is an undergraduate civil and environmental engineering student who joined our group in Fall 2010. He is working closely with Yang on our SERDP contract.
Stefanie Schmidt: Stefanie worked in my lab from 2007 - 2010, initially as an undergraduate student. She specialized in PCR, cloning, and sequencing of functional genes from etheneotrophs and methanotrophs in environmental samples. She is currently working for Bio-Research Products in North Liberty,a company that makes enzymes for medical diagnostics procedures.
Aaron Liao: Aaron, an undergraduate student, worked with Josh and Adina on projects from 2008-2009.
Stephanie Fleckenstein: Stephanie, was an undergraduate Environmental Engineering student, who worked with Adina and Anne from 2008-2009.
Laura Badtke: Laura was a Biosciences PhD student that rotated in our lab for about 10 weeks in the Fall of 2008.
Julie Karceski: Julie was a chemical engineering undergraduate that worked in the group from 2005 - 2007.
Jenna Grady: Jenna, an undergraduate, worked with us in 2007 and 2007.
Andrea Rogers: Andrea was the first student to work with me upon my arrival. She spent time with the group from 2004 - 2006.