Group leader
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Heroen Verbruggen E-mail: heroen.verbruggen@gmail.com — Twitter: @heroenv PhD: Ghent University, 2005 My interests span the fields of algal evolution, microbial symbiosis, genome biology and bioinformatics. I love computational simulation as a tool to explore ideas and methods, and nerdy science stuff in general. |
Postdoctoral researchers
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Kshitij Tandon E-mail: k.tandon@unimelb.edu.au — Twitter: @kt_microbes PhD: Academia Sinica, 2020 I'm interested in microbial ecology, particularly questions about functional redundancy and coral holobiont functioning. I also have a keen interest in bioinformatics for metagenomics applications. My postdoc project focuses on coral ecogenomics. |
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Kavitha Uthanumallian, PhD candidate PhD: University of Melbourne, 2023 E-mail: kavithamallayaa@gmail.com — Twitter: @kavithaplastid I am interested in molecular evolution, particularly how organismal traits correspond with patterns of selection and drift. |
Students
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Myles Courtney, BSc student E-mail: mwcourtney@student.unimelb.edu.au My interests lie in the broad domains of synthetic chemistry, algal and plant biodiversity, and chemical biology. I’m helping out with a few things around the lab as a way of getting more involved with science, and learning more about phycology. |
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Riyad Hossen, PhD candidate MSc: University of Dhaka E-mail: rhossen@student.unimelb.edu.au My interest is on marine algae and I am using genome and transcriptome analysis to understand their evolutionary biology and how they interact with their environment. |
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Yunli (Eric) Hsieh, PhD candidate (with Zoran Nikoloski at MPI-MP) MSc: National Taiwan University, 2019 E-mail: eric.hsieh1224@gmail.com — Twitter: @Yunli_Eric I am interested in coral-algal-bacteria interactions and the effect of climate change on microbiomes living with their hosts. |
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Juntong Hu, PhD candidate MPhil: Hong Kong Baptist University, 2021 E-mail: hujuntong9@gmail.com My research interests focus on the function of Ostreobium in the coral holobiont. I will integrate field sampling, manipulative experiments, and bioinformatics to investigate the functional interaction between Ostreobium spp. and the other components of the coral holobiont and Ostreobium's role across different coral life stages. |
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Owen McGinley, PhD candidate (Heazlewood lab) MBiotech: University of Melbourne, 2019 E-mail: omcginley@student.unimelb.edu.au I'm a PhD candidate interested in plant cell wall biology, particularly sulphated polysaccharide synthesis in red algae species. |
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Marisa Pasella, PhD candidate MSc: Marche Polytechnic University, 2017 E-mail: m.pasella91@gmail.com — Twitter: @MarisaAlgae My background is in algal ecophysiology. I am studying the photobiology of Ostreobium culture strains using a combination of physiological experiments, field work and comparative genomics. |
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Felix Powrie, MSc candidate BSc: University of Melbourne, 2020 E-mail: fpowrie@student.unimelb.edu.au My interest is in population genetics and marine ecology. My current project is assessing turf algae biodiversity via the creation and implementation of a 16S rRNA metabarcode reference database. |
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Uthpala Pushpakumara, PhD candidate (with ANACC) BSc/Hons: University of Sri Jayewardenepura, 2018 E-mail: uth9192@gmail.com I have an interest in bacterial functions in ecosystems and have just started a PhD on algal-bacterial interactions. |
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Vinicius Salazar, PhD candidate (with @mixOmics_team and @hologenomics) MSc: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro E-mail: viniws@gmail.com — Twitter: @vinisalazar_ My interests are split between marine microbiology and scientific computing. I am researching bioinformatics techniques in order to reconstruct microbial genomes from metagenomic data. |
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Ryan Sauermann, BSc student E-mail: rsauermann@student.unimelb.edu.au I have an interest in biochemistry of marine organisms and bioinformatics. I'm building my skillset by helping out with a few projects in the lab. |
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Alasdair Sim, MSc candidate BSc: University of Melbourne, 2021 E-mail: ajsim@student.unimelb.edu.au I am working on long-read metabarcoding of algal turf habitats to expand our knowledge of biodiversity in these micro-ecosystems. |
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Alison Waskowicz, MSc student BSc: University of Melbourne, 2021 E-mail: awaskowicz@student.unimelb.edu.au I am interested in botany and marine biology, focusing on biodiversity, evolution, and ecology. I also love art and photography, and incorporating these into projects. I have been studying biodiversity of local turf algae, and my MSc will involve systematics of native turf species. |