Welcome to Ianina Altshuler and Marco Keiluweit in the NCCR Microbiomes
On 1 July 2024 the NCCR Microbiomes enters its second phase! After the positive evaluation by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) review panel, the SNSF Research Council approved the prolongation of the NCCR for four more years, until 30 June 2028. Besides the reorganisation of the Work Packages (WP) to create a new WP3 dedicated to Plant, Soil and Environmental microbiomes, another main change for Phase II is the inclusion of two new research groups in the NCCR: Our warmest welcome to Prof. Ianina Altshuler and Prof. Marco Keiluweit, our newest member PIs as of 1 July 2024! Both will be joining WP3 of the NCCR.
Ianina Altshuler holds a PhD in Environmental Microbiology from McGill University in Québec, Canada, where she studied microbial activity in Arctic permafrost and its response to climate change. She further pursued her research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences working on engineering microbial communities for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. Ianina joined EPFL as Assistant Professor in August 2022, where she heads the laboratory of Microbiome Adaptation to the Changing Environment at the Alpine and Polar Environmental Research Centre (ALPOLE) at EPFL’s Valais Wallis campus in Sion. Within the NCCR Microbiomes, Ianina plans to study the effects of freeze and thaw cycle perturbations on microbiome assembly, resilience and function.
Marco Keiluweit obtained a PhD in Soil Biogeochemistry from Oregon State University in the USA, where he worked as a Lawrence scholar in the Isotope Signature Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. To pursue his research, he moved to the Environmental & Soil Biogeochemistry group at Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Scholar, and then became Assistant Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In 2022, he was appointed Associate Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry in the Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment at the University of Lausanne, where he heads the group Molecular Biogeochemistry of Soils. Joining the NCCR Microbiomes, Marco and his group will develop a new line of research on the formation of soil microbial necromass and its persistence in soil microhabitats.
