Bowen Lab

Latest News

Lots of amazing things have been happening in the Bowen Lab!!

Welcome to our newest lab member!! Andrea Unzueta Martinez is joining us from U. Hawaii.
Congratulations to Dr. John Angell for successfully (miraculously) defending his PhD!
Check out this article about our work at the Plum Island LTER here!
Congratulations to PhD Candidate, Pat Kearns for successfully defending his dissertation proposal!
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Feinman for succesfully defending her PhD!! We're all very proud!
Check out the news story by UMB about our research on permeable reactive barriers. And check out the paper it's based off of that was just recently published in AEM!
Check out my interview on Living Lab for the Cape and Islands NPR station
Woot Woot!! Our nirS network analysis paper was just accepted in Frontiers in Terrestrial Microbiology. Access the article here!
Our feature article just came out in MEPS. You can download the open access article here

You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook!

Fields of study:

microbial ecology, microbial diversity, ecosystems ecology, aquatic biogeochemistry, salt marsh and estuarine ecology, functional genomics of nitrogen cycling bacteria and archaea

Research interests:

My work runs the gamut from modeling how changing land use on watersheds alters the geochemistry of receiving waters to understanding how climate change and nutrient enrichment alters the structure and function of microbial communities. In particular I have been focusing on both how human activities are altering the structure and function of microbial communities and in turn how microbial communities can help ameliorate pollution from human sources. There is a lot to be learned about the exact nature of the interaction between microbial communities and their biogeochemical function and we explore these interactions using a multi-'omics approach. I use a combination of field and mesocosm experiments, numerical modeling, biogeochemical flux measurements, and molecular methods to understand how changing microbial community composition and gene expression correlate with changes in geochemistry.

Finally, I have a particular interest in nitrogen cycling in salt marshes. Marshes are critically important because of their location between land and sea and because they are able to intercept land-derived nitrogen before in reaches fragile estuarine ecosystems. We need to understand how the microbial communities in salt marshes respond to increases in nitrogen loads if we are to protect our precious coastal resources. I have active research ongoing in salt marshes on Cape Cod and I am currently accepting applications for graduate students to continue work on this project.

Check out our research page to find out more about the projects we have!

Education:

Council on Science and Technology Teaching Fellow, Princeton University (2007-2010)

NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory (2005-2007)

PhD Biology, Boston University Marine Program, Woods Hole MA (2005)

BA Biology, Colby College, Waterville, ME (1994)