Sean Crowe
Associate Professor, UBC
I am currently Canada Research Chair in Geomicrobiology cross appointed between the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. My research program is focused on developing and improving conceptual and numerical models of biogeochemical cycling and the coupled evolution of Earth surface chemistry and life. I work across multiple scales of space and time, from mineral-microbe interactions to global processes, and from the Precambrian through to the Anthropocene.
There is no shortage of exciting and important scientific questions that are uniquely tractable through the interdisciplinary toolset of contemporary geobiology. My current research program works toward addressing the following questions: 1) how did the Earth come to support complex animal life and humans; 2) how will biogeochemical cycles respond to the emergence of humans as geobiological agents; and 3) how can we harness the ingenuity of microbial communities to mitigate pain-points arising from increased human demands on water, energy, mineral, and agricultural resources.
Beyond my research, I am committed to pedagogy and am comfortable teaching a diversity of material from molecular microbiology to geochemistry to limnology to field geology. I strongly believe that the leading global citizens of the future should have worldviews shaped and informed by modern science, and this challenge rests to a large extent on the shoulders of university educators. In addition to classroom teaching, I am active in outreach and capacity building in developing nations, and I work extensively in East Africa and Southeast Asia where I use scientific exploration as a vehicle to help address ecological impacts of global development. I plan to continue and expand these capacity building and outreach activities, working to translate scientific knowledge, including that created through my own research program, into meaningful environmental policy and social awareness.
Current lab members
Shea Thorne
PhD student
Shea is working on a PhD in Geological Sciences and interested in astrobiology. His research focuses on a modern terrestrial microbial mat community as an analogue for Precambrian life on land. Other ongoing research seeks to constrain the flux of electron donors and acceptors, and the primary production of metabolisms they could support in putative lacustrine lake ecosystems on Noachian Mars.
Bianca Iulianella Phillips
PhD student
Bianca is working on a PhD in Geology. Her research explores how modern sequencing technology, big-data techniques and microbiological approaches can be used to discover buried mineral deposits. Bianca aims to develop and utilize this technology to recognize desirable rock units buried beneath transported overburden to inform mineral exploration decision-making and discovery
Ishika Gill
Undergraduate researcher
Algicide production in terrestrial microbial mats
Affiliated lab members
Hamsun H.S. Chan
M.Phil candidate
Hamsun is an environmental scientist interested in topics related to marine ecology, pollution and earth system cycles. Hamsun’s first research project investigates the distribution of microplastic in the marine environment and highlights the potential ecological threats as well as food safety issues. As an extension of the previous project, Hamsun is now focused on studying the microbial communities that are involved with microplastic degradation and biofilm formation.
Anyang Ding
PhD candidate
Paleobiology, Elementary Particle Physic, Solid State Physics, Geology, Biogeography, Paleontology
Daniel Mills, PhD
Dan’s research primarily concerns the co-evolution of the Proterozoic biosphere (Earth’s ‘middle age,’ 2.5-0.541 billion years ago) and eukaryotic life — a topic he approaches by studying modern organisms and environments
Rachel Simister, PhD
Rachel’s research interests span the broad field of microbial interactions and ecology, incorporating varied disciplines such as molecular biology, phylogenetics, biogeochemistry and biotechnology. Rachel’s research focuses on both free-living and host-associated bacteria and archaeal communities, as well as eukaryotic microbial communities. Rachel’s ultimate goal is to understand how microbes interact with their environment and in particular, how biogeochemical variables shape community structure and function.
Kohen Bauer, PhD
Kohen is chemical oceanographer with backgrounds in geology, oceanography, geochemistry and microbiology. He studies the connections between the evolution of Earth’s surface chemistry, biological innovation and climate. His research integrates conceptual computer modelling, field, microscopy, and geochemical work.
Past Lab members
