Hu, Sarah Assistant Professor

I am a microbial ecologist, biological oceanographer, and data scientist. I am interested in understanding how microorganisms fuel and facilitate the ecological processes that sustain our planet. The marine microbial food web consists of a tangle of complex interactions and I am particularly fascinated by the ecological contributions of unicellular eukaryotes (or protists). Protistan community structure (diversity and composition of species) and their nutritional strategies are reflections of their environment. My group uses a variety of molecular approaches, computational biology, laboratory incubations, and microscopy to understand the innerworkings of the marine microbial eukaryome - from coastal environments, deep-sea hydrothermal vent habitats, or along biogeochemical transition zones in the water column.