Anne Booker, PhD

Education

B.A., Biology, Austin College, 2014

Ph.D., Microbiology, The Ohio State University, 2018

Research Interests

Hello and Welcome!

I am a microbiologist that is interested in understanding how microbes influence the world around us. My realization of the power of microbes began when I was an undergraduate when I had the opportunity to track prairie restoration efforts by measuring specific microbial gene concentrations over time. Through this project I learned combinations of microbes can be used to help fix societal based problems, this was exciting, and I wanted to learn more about them.

During my Ph.D. I learned that the deep underground environments on Earth (both on land and at sea) house 80% of all microbes that live on earth! That means under our feet trillions of microbes are living as best they can. Who are these microbes and how does their activity affect us living on the surface? Do these microbes have any tools that we can repurpose for use on the surface? Learning more about this uncultivated majority has been my recent focus, especially when it comes to microbes that live at the bottom of the ocean.