Alessandra ValdiviaGraduate Student

Research Focus:

Biogeochemistry, microbial nutrient cycling

Email:

valdivia@uchicago.edu

Office:

Hinds 351

Biography

Preferred Pronouns: She/her/hers

While completing my undergraduate degree in Microbiology at the University of California Santa Barbara, I conducted research under Dr. Alyson Santoro isolating marine microorganisms that could degrade a specific biopolymer (polyhydroxybutyrate, PHB) and measuring the rate of degradation in marine environments. After graduating in 2022, I moved to Berkeley to work for a startup, Mango Materials, where my role was in the gas fermentation of methanotrophs which produce PHB in their cells. I am broadly interested in how microbes use and cycle nutrients in the environment and how they adapt and evolve in response to changing environmental conditions, particularly in the context of climate change. I am pursuing these research interests as I work towards a PhD at UChicago.