Congratulations are in order to Diana Ayala, Caitlin Hodges, and Mara Cloutier on successful defenses of their PhD dissertations!

Diana (Environmental Engineering and Biogeochemistry) is a Fulbright Scholar from Ecuador, and her dissertation is Omics-Enabled Evaluation of Microbial Communities in Acidic Environmental Systems.  Diana’s BGC co-advisors were Bill Burgos and Jenn Macalady.

Caitlin (Soil Science and Biogeochemistry) was co-advised by Jason Kaye and Susan Brantley. Her dissertation is Interactions between minerals, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in the critical zone. Caitlin will be starting at the University of Oklahoma in August as Assistant Professor of Critical Zone Geoscience in the College of Earth and Energy, School of Geosciences.

Mara (Soil Science and Biogeochemistry) is at the end of a USDA NIFA Predoctoral Fellowship which helped complete her dissertation, Toward understanding the impact of management practices on soil microbial nitrogen dynamics in agroecosystems. Mara’s BGC co-advisors were Mary Ann Bruns and Jay Regan