David Walsh
Principal Investigator
Canada Research Chair in Microbial Ecology and Genomics
Associate Professor, Biology, Concordia University

E-mail: david.walsh@concordia.ca

Susanne Kraemer
Research Associate

Research interests: I'm interested in how environmental factors shape the biogeography and fitness landscape of natural microbial populations in ecosystems ranging from soil to lakes and the arctic ocean.
E-mail: susanne.kraemer@mail.concordia.ca

Veronika Storck
Postdoctoral fellow - co-supervised with Marc Amyot (U de Montreal)

Research interests: Methylmercury increase in rivers can be provoked by landscape alterations such as wildfires, deforestation or hydroelectric dams. My research centers on developing a genomic understanding the role of mercury-methylating microbial communities in such impacted environments. At present I am particularly interested in the phylogenetic and metabolic diversity of methylators in the context of elucidating the function and evolution of the methylating hgcAB genes. My wider interests include the transformation, ecotoxicological impact, and risk assessment of organic pollutants in the environment.
E-mail: veronika.storck@umontreal.ca

Arthi Ramachandran
PhD student

​Research interests: My research focuses on the metabolic diversity and evolution of methylotrophic bacteria in northern aquatic ecosystems and how they contribute to carbon cycling in freshwater and marine environments in a changing world. I'm also interested in habitat transitions between freshwater and marine environments, and plan to use the OM43/LD28 clade of methylotrophic bacteria as a model organism to study these evolutionary events
E-mail: a_ramac@live.concordia.ca

Thomas Grevesse
PhD student

Research interests: My research seeks to understand how the composition, function and metabolism of marine microbial communities shape biogeochemical and ecological processes in the Arctic Ocean. I am particularly interested in how these processes are affected by a rapidly changing climate
E-mail: thomas.grevesse@gmail.com

Vera Onana
PhD student

Research Interests: My research involves investigating the distribution and biodiversity of microbial communities in lakes using genomic approaches. I am also interested in evaluating the relationship between the functional potential of lake microbial communities and anthropogenic impact. Hopefully, findings from my investigation will help predict how human impact may be disrupting lake health and functionality.
E-mail: vera.onana@mail.concordia.ca

Rebecca Garner
PhD student

Research Interests: My research explores how human impact has altered Canadian lake microbial communities before and since industrialization by comparing the environmental DNA in shallow (present day) and deep (preindustrial) lake sediments.  Developing these paleogenetic techniques is in contrast with the classical paleolimnological approach, which has relied on plankton subfossil morphologies to reconstruct past lake communities.
E-mail: rebecca.garner@mail.concordia.ca

Susan McLatchie
MSc student

Research Interests: I’m interested in how the diversity and metabolic capacity of natural microbial communities shift in response to environmental change over time in the Arctic Ocean.
E-mail: mclatchiesusan@gmail.com

Charlène Lawruk-Desjardins
MSc student

Research Interests: The diversity and genetic composition of aquatic microbial communities living in cold ecosystems fascinates me. I am particularly interested in the effects that anthropogenic stresses can have on bacterial and viral communities, including how these changes can resonate in a larger scale on the ecosystem.
E-mail: charlene.lawruk-desjardins@mail.concordia.ca

Maya Chahine
Undergraduate researcher

Research Interests: Anthropogenic impacts are drifting freshwater lakes from their pristine states, inevitably altering microbial communities. My research investigates the influence of human-mediated environmental change on rapidly adapting fungal diversity, particularly how fungal assemblages vary in Canadian freshwater lakes exhibiting a spectrum of physicochemical profiles. In addition, co-occurrences with other microbes are explored to clarify ecological relationships within such habitats, using DNA sequencing datasets.
E-mail: maya.chahine@mail.concordia.ca

Camille Serra de Villeneuve
Undergraduate thesis student (BIOL490)

Research Interests: My interest lies with coastal marine ecosystems, and how human derived influences through cargo passage or recreational sailing might shape different microbial communities than those in pristine coastal areas. Specifically I'm hoping to have a closer look at human pathogens.
E-mail: serdev@posteo.net

Wentworth Brookes
Systems analyst

Research Interests: Wentworth plays the essential role of keeping our high performance computer cluster operational.
E-mail: wentworth.brookes@concordia.ca

Lab Alumni

Lise Millera Ferriz— MSc, May 2018-Sept 2020 (co-supervised with M. Amyot, U de Montréal)
Joanna Gauthier— PhD, Sep 2014-Aug 2020 (co-supervised with I. Gregory-Eaves, McGill U)
Makayla Harrison— MSc, May 2017-Sept 2019
Stephanie Pacheco— MSc, May 2017-May 2019
David Colatriano— PhD student, May 2013-Sept 2019.
Nayereh Saborimanesh— PDF, January 2016-January 2018 (co-supervised with C. Mulligan, Concordia)
Patricia Tran— MSc student, Sept 2016-Sept 2018
Rebecca Garner— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project) Sept 2017-May 2017
Ola Khawasik— MSc student, Sept 2013-April 2016.
Jackie Peters— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project), May 2015-May 2016
Sabrina Shefa— Diploma in Biotechnology & Genomics student, Sept 2014-May 2015
Natali Samus— Diploma in Biotechnology & Genomics student, May 2015-Dec 2015.
Philippe Thibert— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project), Sept 2014-May 2015.
Daniel Sinclair— CHEM419 student (undergraduate thesis project). May 2014-Jan 2015.
Arthi Ramachandran — BIOL490 student, completed thesis in May 2014.
Palig Khatcherian— Diploma in Biotechnology & Genomics student, Sept 2013-May 2014.
Ting Ting Cui— MSc student, September 2011-Sept 2013.
Heba El-Swais— MSc student, September 2011- Sept 2013. 5.     
Travis Dawson— MSc student, May 2011-Dec 2013.
Michael Gasse— MSc student, co-supervised with Emma Despland.
Sharadindu Sinha— Diploma in Biotechnology & Genomics student, Sept 2011-May 2012.
Christine Gaudreau— BIOL490 student, completed thesis in May 2011.
Anna Georges— Research Assistant, Sept 2011 to Sept 2012.