Steering Committee
- Victoria Orphan, CEMI Director
- James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Center for Environmental Microbial Interactions
- Sujit Datta
- Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biophysics
- Lea Goentoro
- Professor of Biology
- Jared Leadbetter
- Professor of Environmental Microbiology
- Mikhail Shapiro
- Professor of Chemical Engineering; Heritage Principal Investigator, Schlinger Scholar Affiliated Faculty of Bioengineering and Medical Engineering
- Kaihang Wang
- Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
Staff
- Kristy Nguyen
- CEMI Program Coordinator
626.395.3287
kristyn@caltech.edu
Faculty
- Alexei Aravin
- Professor of Biology
- Frances Arnold
- Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry; Director, Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center
- Pamela Bjorkman
- Centennial Professor of Biology
- Long Cai
- Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
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- Judith Campbell
- Professor of Chemistry and Biology
- Tsui-Fen Chou
- Research Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
- William Clemons
- Professor of Biochemistry
- Sujit Datta
- Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biophysics
- Gözde Demirer
- Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
- John Eiler
- Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry; Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Michael Elowitz
- Professor of Biology and Bioengineering; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Executive Officer for Biological Engineering
- Woodward Fischer
- Professor of Geobiology
- Christian Frankenberg
- Chandler Family Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; Jet Propulsion Laboratory Research Scientist
- Lea Goentoro
- Professor of Biology
- Viviana Gradinaru
- Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute; Director, Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
- Harry Gray
- Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry; Founding Director, Beckman Institute
- Ryan Hadt
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry
- Bruce Hay
- Professor of Biology
- Rustem Ismagilov
- Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; Director of the Jacobs Institute for Molecular Engineering for Medicine
- Smruthi Karthikeyan
- Gordon and Carol Treweek Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; William H. Hurt Scholar
- Joe Kirschvink
- Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology
- Julia Kornfield
- Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemical Engineering
- Jared Leadbetter
- Professor of Environmental Microbiology
- Karthish Manthiram
- Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry; William H. Hurt Scholar
- Sarkis Mazmanian
- Luis B. and Nelly Soux Professor of Microbiology; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute
- Margaret McFall-Ngai
- Faculty Associate in Biology and Biological Engineering, Caltech; Director, Division of Biosphere Sciences & Engineering
- Elliot Meyerowitz
- George W. Beadle Professor of Biology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Richard Murray
- Thomas E. and Doris Everhart Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and Bioengineering
- Dianne Newman
- Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology; Executive Officer for Molecular Biology; CEMI founding director
- Victoria Orphan
- James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Center for Environmental Microbial Interactions
- Lior Pachter
- Bren Professor of Computational Biology and Computing and Mathematical Sciences
- Joseph Parker
- Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
- Jonas Peters
- Bren Professor of Chemistry; Director, Resnick Sustainability Institute
- Niles Pierce
- Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Bioengineering
- Rob Phillips
- Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics, Biology, and Physics
- Douglas Rees
- Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Chemistry; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Dean of Graduate Studies
- Michael Roukes
- Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering
- George Rossman
- Professor of Mineralogy
- Ned Ruby
- Faculty Associate in Biology and Biological Engineering, Caltech
- Alex Sessions
- Professor of Geobiology
- Mikhail Shapiro
- Professor of Chemical Engineering; Heritage Principal Investigator, Schlinger Scholar Affiliated Faculty of Bioengineering and Medical Engineering
- Paul Sternberg
- Bren Professor of Biology
- Brian Stoltz
- Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute
- David Tirrell
- Provost; Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering; Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair
- Matt Thomson
- Professor of Computational Biology; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute
- David Van Valen
- Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
- Kaihang Wang
- Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering
- Lu Wei
- Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute; Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar
- Yisong Yue
- Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Emeritus CEMI Faculty
- Jacqueline Barton
- John G. Kirkwood and Arthur A. Noyes Professor of Chemistry; Norman Davidson Leadership Chair, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
- Michael Hoffmann
- John S. and Sherry Chen Professor of Environmental Science
CEMI Visiting Faculty Fellows
- Ludmilla Aristilde
- Northwestern University
- Interests: Unraveling Mechanisms in Environmental Organic Processes and Environmental Biotechnology
- Visiting 2023
- Boswell Wing
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- Interests: experimental microbial evolution, stable isotope geochemistry, precambrian geology, early earth
- Visiting 2023
- Emily Balskus
- Harvard University
- Interests: Discovery of microbial enzymes and metabolites, understanding how microbial chemistry influences the biology of microbes and microbiomes.
- Visiting 2023
- Colleen Cavanaugh
- Harvard University
- Interests: Symbioses of bacteria in marine invertebrates from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, methane seeps, and coastal reducing sediments
- Visiting 2020
- Dao Nguyen
- McGill University (Canada)
- Interests: Bacterial metabolism, antibiotic tolerance and host-pathogen interactions in chronic infection
- Visiting 2019
- John McCutcheon
- University of Montana
- Interests: Symbioses involving bacteria, fungi, and insects, with particular focus on the evolutionary, genomic, and cell biological processes that govern these interactions
- Visiting 2018
- Roy Kishony
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
- Interests: Predicting and preventing the evolution of antibiotic resistance
- Visited 2018
- Andreas Kappler
- University of Tuebingen
- Interests: Interactions of microorganisms and minerals
- Visited 2016, 2017
- Michael Wagner
- University of Vienna
- Interests: Investigating the identity and function of individual microbial cells within their natural habitats
- Visited 2016
- Kevin Foster
- University of Oxford
- Interests: Social lives of microbes and other group-living species
- Visited 2014, 2016
- Jim Howard
- University of Minnesota
- Interests: Microbial niches in unusual environments where nitrogen fixation may occur
- Visited 2014
- Stuart Conway
- University of Oxford
- Interests: Development of small molecule probes of bacterial function
- Visited 2013
- Ian Booth
- University of Aberdeen
- Interests: The mechanisms and physiological roles of mechanosensitive channels
- Visited 2012, 2013, 2014
- Sean Elliott
- Boston University
- Interests: The interplay between biological systems and redox-active species
- Visited 2012
- Ned Ruby
- University of Hawaii
- Interests: Bacterial basis for biochemical and molecular events that characterize colonization of animal epithelial tissue
- Visited 2011, 2012
- Margaret Mcfall-Ngai
- University of Hawaii
- Interests: Host-bacterial symbiosis and the 'design' of tissues that interact with light
- Visited 2011, 2012
Caldwell CEMI Fellows
- Jarek Kwiecinski
- 2025 Caldwell Fellow
- Soil bacteria play a vital role in agriculture by suppressing plant pathogens, increasing nutrient availability, and activating plant stress response pathways. Despite this, we know little about how these organisms cope with desiccation, an important stressor in drylands which are home to 38% of the world's population. Desiccation simultaneously deprives cells of water and nutrients, as soil bacteria access resources via diffusion through liquid films. Thus, many of the resource intensive water stress response pathways we know from liquid culture, like osmolyte synthesis, may be less relevant in soil environments. Water loss from cells also increases macromolecule concentrations, damaging cellular machinery and introducing intracellular barriers to diffusion that slow metabolism. Cells with greater cytoplasmic space free of DNA, polymer condensates, and other diffusion barriers may be more desiccation tolerant. My research applies cell biological tools to understand how specific stress response pathways and the overall structure of bacterial cells influence their desiccation tolerance.
- Advisors: Dianne Newman
- Hannah Way
- 2023 Caldwell Fellow
- Physiological investigation of a novel manganese oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic co-culture, exploring the symbiosis between partners and the relationship between these microbes and the unique manganese oxides they generate.
- Advisors: Jared Leadbetter
- Shaelyn Silverman
- 2022 Caldwell Fellow
- Marine particulate organic matter turnover: insight into the microscale ecology, and development of a novel analytical (stable isotopic) tool for in situ environmental measurements
- Advisors: Alex Sessions and Victoria Orphan
- Shivansh Mahajan
- 2021 Caldwell Fellow
- Towards a mechanistic understanding of the arsenic detoxification machinery – the ArsAB efflux system, with implications for bioremediation
- Advisors: Bil Clemons, Doug Rees, and Dianne Newman
- Przemyslaw Dutka
- 2020 Caldwell Fellow
- In situ structural analysis of gas vesicles by cryo-electron tomography
- Advisors: Mikhail Shapiro and Grant Jensen
- Manuel Razo Mejia
- 2019 Caldwell Fellow
- A high-throughput, biophysics approach to study microbial evolution
- Advisors: Rob Phillips and Matt Thomson
- Asher Preska Steinberg
- 2018 Caldwell Fellow
- Understanding how emulsifiers in food impact the colonic mucus barrier and microbe-host interactions
- Advisors: Rustem Ismagilov and Sarkis Mazmanian
CEMI WAVE Fellows
Visit the WAVE Fellows website.
Find out about our CEMI Teaching/Mentorship program with CalState LA and Pasadena City College.
- Lily Strange
- UC Santa Barbara
- 2025 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Uncovering the Architecture of Anaerobic Methane-Oxidizing Mats at a Santa Monica Seep: Mapping Function and Form
- Mentor: Victoria Orphan
- Nalani Quintana
- University of Florida
- 2024 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Characterizing Sediment Microbial Communities and Investigating the Impact of the Physicochemical Environment on Methane Cycling Across Methane Seeps in the Gulf of Alaska
- Mentor: Victoria Orphan and Dan Utter
- Jayden Thomas
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- 2024 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Understanding Biological Metabolism in Biotic-Electrochemical Interface of Bacteria: S. oneidensis
- Mentor: Karthish Manthiram
- Stella Baldwin
- University of Southern California
- 2023 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Visualizing ANME-2b genetic variation using 16S rRNA data, fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH), and bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT) to target single metabolic genes
- Mentor: Victoria Orphan and Dan Utter
- Ana Duarte Montano
- Smith College
- 2023 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Identification, cloning, and characterization of monoclonal antibodies that interact with different receptor-binding domains on sarbecoviruses
- Mentor: Pamela Bjorkman
- Christian Cepeda
- Stanford
- 2022 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Designing and cloning HIV-1 Env-based immunogen constructs
- Mentor: Pamela Bjorkman
- Madison Ochoa
- Northern Arizona University
- 2022 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Mentor: Dianne Newman
- Jackeline Peraza
- Barnard College of Columbia University
- 2022 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Mentor: Paul Sternberg
- Alejandra Leal
- Cal State Los Angeles
- 2022 BBE CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Mentor: Rodney Tollerson (Orphan Lab)
- Juliann Panehal
- Cal State Los Angeles
- 2022 BBE CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Measuring isotopic compositions in subsurface environments to investigate abiotic organogenesis
- Mentor: Elliott Mueller (Sessions Lab)
- Gia Han Vuong
- Pasadena City College
- 2022 BBE CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Project: Quantitative observation of P. aeruginosa within oxygen gradients (i.e. ABBAs) toward understanding antibiotic tolerance
- Mentor: Avi Flamholz (Newman Lab)
- India Wesley-Cardwell
- Cal State Los Angeles
- 2022 BBE CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Mentor: Karen Orta (Clemons Lab)
- Nicole Garrido
- UCLA
- 2021 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Characterizing the Microbial Ecology of Coastal Seagrass Roots and Associated Sediments
- Mentors: Victoria Orphan, Kriti Sharma, James Mullahoo
- Juan Santos
- Pitzer College
- 2021 CEMI WAVE Fellow
- Identifying the Correlation Between N-oxide Reduction and Resistance to Antibiotics in Achromobacter xylosoxidans Clinical Isolates
- Mentors: Dianne Newman, Zach Lonergan, Steven Wilbert
1st Year Graduate Student Fellows
| Year | Student | Division/Department |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Jordan Chastain | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2024 | Kemal Demirer | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2024 | Yurina Hashimoto | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2024 | Dayeon Kang | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2024 | Esther Okamoto | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2024 | Patrick Simpson | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2023 | Yihan (Olive) Cheng | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2023 | Catherine Griffin | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2023 | Manuel Holguin | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2023 | Elizabeth (Liz) Hughes | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2023 | Doran Sekaran | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2023 | Clara Seo | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2023 | Akanksha Yadav | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2022 | Chiara Berruto | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2022 | Joe Boktor | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2022 | Michael Anne Bolene | Engineering and Applied Science |
| 2022 | Madison Dunitz | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2022 | Anthony Guiterrez | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2021 | David Aguirre | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2021 | Vera Beilinson | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2021 | Alejandro Cabrera | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2021 | Jarek Kwiecinski | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2021 | Juliet Lee | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2021 | Kelly Shaffer | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2021 | Sarah Weisflog | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Matt Cooper | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Noah Epstein | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Richard Horak | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Elin Larsson | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Yancheng Li | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | James Mullahoo | Engineering and Applied Science |
| 2020 | Vy Nguyen | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Anastasiya Oguienko | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2020 | Calvin Rusley | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2020 | Korbi Thalhammer | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2020 | Hannah Way | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2020 | Jee Won Yang | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2020 | Raymond Zhang | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Zevin Condiotte | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Hannah Dion-Kirschner | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2019 | Mengtong (Tom) Duan | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Manisha Kapasiawala | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Anastasiya (Ana) Moiseyenko | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Alexander Winnett | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2019 | Rebecca Wipfler | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2019 | Jie (Jolena) Zhou | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2018 | Marjorie Buss | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2018 | Bryan Gerber | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2018 | Gabriel Salmon | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2018 | Shirin Shivaei | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2018 | Shaelyn Silverman | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2018 | Daniel Wackelin | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2018 | Steven Wilbert | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2018 | Philip Woods | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2017 | Jacob Barlow | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2017 | John Ciemniecki | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2017 | Zhiyang Jin | Engineering and Applied Science |
| 2017 | Aditi Narayanan | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2017 | Lev Tsypin | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2017 | Nadezda Volovich | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2017 | Renee Wang | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2016 | Bill Ling | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2016 | Elliot Mackrell | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2016 | Lealia Xiong | Engineering and Applied Science |
| 2015 | Gray Chadwick | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2015 | April Jauhal | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2015 | Anders Knight | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2015 | Sujung Lim | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2015 | Usha Lingappa | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2015 | Xinyan Liu | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2015 | Lucas A. Meirelles | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2015 | Andrew Patterson | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2015 | Elena Perry | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2015 | Malaney Young | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2014 | Kyle Metcalfe | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2014 | Scott Saunders | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2014 | Meaghan Sullivan | Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics |
| 2014 | Chanel Valiente | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2013 | Sean Mullin | Geological and Planetary Sciences |
| 2013 | Sofia Quinodoz | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2013 | Yapeng Su | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering |
| 2012 | Michael Abrams | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2012 | Tahmineh Khazaei | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2012 | Sushant Sundaresh | Biology and Biological Engineering |
| 2012 | Lewis Ward | Geological and Planetary Sciences |