A key goal of the CI-SFA and ORNL is to train the next generation of scientists and engineers. To this end, the SFA has maintained a number of outstanding graduate and postgraduate researchers since its inception.
Dr. Washburn is focusing on the understanding of the cycling of trace metal contaminants in natural systems, with a particular interest in mercury.
spotlightDr. Eckert is working to characterize the complexation of mercury by bacterial exudates, with a focus on the complexation of mercury by methanobactin, a peptide excreted by methanotrophic bacteria for extracellular copper acquisition.
spotlightCaitlin Gionfriddo received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed her masters and Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Melbourne in Australia. At ORNL, Dr. Gionfriddo is applying her expertise in community-scale genomics to answer the “who, how, why” of microbial mercury methylation.
spotlightGrace Schwartz received her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Duke University. She specializes in trace element biogeochemistry, contaminant remediation, and environmental analytical chemistry.
spotlightLijie Zhang received her B.S. from Tsinghua University and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, both in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Zhang studies the molecular mechanisms involved in biogeochemical transformations of Hg under complex environmental conditions.
spotlightXia Lu received her Ph.D. in 2016 from Lanzhou University, China. Her current work focuses on the mechanisms and geochemical controls on microbial mercury methylation and demethylation.
spotlightSwapneeta Date earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) in 2016. Her aim is to characterize the molecular mechanisms of mercury methylation and understand the complex interplay between various cellular components and pathways surrounding methylation of mercury.
spotlightRyne C. Johnston received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oregon State University in 2015. He applies quantum chemical methods to glean energetic, mechanistic or structural insights into the reactivity and speciation of organic molecules and (post-)transition metal complexes relevant to mercury biogeochemistry.
spotlightAaron M Jubb earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at The Ohio State University. His focus has been on abiotic processes involving photochemical reactions of Hg associated with mineral and organic particle surfaces.
spotlightLinduo Zhao received her Ph.D. in Geosciences from Miami University in 2015. Her research specializes in understanding complex biogeochemical transformation of mercury including microbial methylation/demethylation, reduction/oxidation, and sorption/desorption in environmental media.
spotlightTodd Olsen received a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His work at ORNL includes periphyton characterization, methylation/demethylation rate assays on periphyton, biogeochemical redox profiling of periphyton, and monitoring the dynamics of low molecular weight thiol concentrations in periphyton.
spotlightGeoff Christensen received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 2014. Christensen’s research focuses on developing and validating molecular probes for accessing mercury methylation in the environment.
spotlightHongmei Chen earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Old Dominion University in 2014. Her research focuses on molecular-scale understanding of mercury-dissolved organic matter complexes affecting mercury biogeochemical transformations in natural water and sediments.
spotlightBryan Crable received a master's degree in Biology from Duquesne University and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Crable specializes in microbial physiology because he recognizes the essential role bacteria play in solving the world's toughest environmental challenges.
spotlightRomain Bridou received a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biogeochemistry with honors from the University of Pau, France, in 2010. He developed genetic tools for the mercury-methylating sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ND132. As a result, he was part of the team that established that the two-gene cluster, hgcA and hgcB, is required for mercury methylation in seemingly all mercury-methylating organisms.
spotlightJing Zhou is a fourth-year graduate student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, under the supervision of Jeremy Smith and Jerry Parks. She is part of a multidisciplinary research team at ORNL, where her research focuses on performing quantum chemical calculations to understand redox properties and methyl transfer mechanisms of the protein HgcA, which plays a key role in mercury methylation.
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File last modified: Wednesday, September 15, 2021
The ORNL Mercury SFA is sponsored by the Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR) program within the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.