David Walsh
Principal Investigator
Professor, Biology, Concordia University

E-mail: [email protected]

Veronika Storck
Research Associate

​Research interests: My research integrates microbiology, genomics, and environmental chemistry to address key challenges in ecotoxicology. During my PhD, I investigated the environmental fate of pesticides and their metabolites, exploring the role of microorganisms in mitigating or exacerbating environmental impacts. Currently, my work focuses on analyzing metagenomes and metatranscriptomes from river sediments to unravel microbial contributions to the mercury cycle, with the goal of advancing our understanding of contaminant dynamics in natural ecosystems.
E-mail: [email protected]

Geneviève D'Avignon
Postdoctoral fellow (co-supervised with Y. Huot, U de Sherbrooke and I. Gregory-Eaves, McGill U)

Research Interests: My research involves interdisciplinary ecological topics addressing the effects of human-mediated changes on aquatic or marine ecosystems. I have used a diversity of techniques (otolith microchemistry, imaging, dive surveys, molecular tools) to monitor these changes under multiple stressors scenarios (fishing pressure, climate change, microplastic pollution, exotic species). My current work aims to use community science and inland water eDNA to track the presence and distribution of zoonotic mosquitoes across Canada.
E-mail: [email protected]

Michelle Cheng
PhD student (co-supervised with I. Gregory-Eaves, McGill U)

Research Interests: My research focuses on assessing lake ecosystem changes over the past few centuries. Specifically, I apply both traditional paleolimnological proxies (e.g., subfossil diatoms) and emerging molecular genetics tools (i.e., sedimentary DNA) to reconstruct sockeye salmon population dynamics and shifts in their food-web composition.
E-mail: [email protected]

Exaltacao Rodrigues
MSc student

Research Interests: My research involves charting the phylogenetic diversity and virocell metabolism of giant viruses in 308 lakes across Canada through the lens of metagenomics.
E-mail: [email protected]

Matthew Regan
MSc student

Research Interests: My research concerns microbial communities within permafrost soil samples. I hope to perform genomic analysis of these communities to better understand the methods, metabolic pathways, and genes involved in microbial methylmercury cycling.
E-mail: [email protected]

Sara Palestini
MSc student

Research Interests: I am most interested in the adaptation of ocean microbial communities to shifting abiotic factors, as a result of anthropogenic climate change. My research centers on the metabolic and taxonomic diversity of the Arctic Ocean microbiome, whose dynamics are integral to our understanding of humanity’s current and future impacts on the health of our oceans.
E-mail: [email protected]

Juliana Alvarado-Drosou
MSc student

Research Interests: My research involves employing long-read sequencing techniques to monitor the metagenomic diversity of microbes in the BioCAST system: an innovative bioreactor aimed at the bioremediation of ammonium-rich gold-production wastewater streams. My broader interests include metagenomics, aquatic microbiology, population dynamics, and urban water ecology.
E-mail: [email protected]

Ramisa Rahman
Undergraduate thesis student (BIOL490)

Research Interests: My research consists of the assessment and understanding of the microbial community diversity within an innovative microbiological wastewater treatment system aimed at efficient nitrogen removal from mining effluent.
E-mail: [email protected]

Dominique Baker
Undergraduate thesis student (BIOL490)

Research Interests: My research delves into the taxonomic identification and transcriptomic analysis of Arctic Ocean microbes for a better understanding towards the effects of climate change on the microbial community and their metabolic pathways.
E-mail: [email protected]

Asher Woodhead
Undergraduate thesis student (BIOL490)

Research Interests: I am developing a strain library of arctic microbes as part of a NSERC award and BIOL 490 project. My interests center around microbiology, symbiosis and natural products.
E-mail: [email protected]

Wentworth Brookes
Systems analyst

Research Interests: Wentworth plays the essential role of keeping our high performance computer cluster operational.
E-mail: [email protected]

Lab Alumni

Virginia Elena Ortiz Peña— BIOL516 student (Diploma student research project), Jan-Aug 2024
Juliana Alvarado-Drosou— BIOL516 student (Diploma student research project), Jan-Aug 2024
Aniga Nag— BIOL516 student (Diploma student research project), May-Dec 2023
Jack Compos— BIOL516 student (Diploma student research project), May-Dec 2023
Vera Onana— PhD, Feb 2018-Jul 2024
Rebecca Garner— PhD, Jan 2018-Nov 2023
Roksana Sheikholmolouki— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project), Sept 2022-May 2023
June Kim— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project), Sept 2022-May 2023
Thibault Maumy— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project), Sept 2022-May 2023
Charlène Lawruk-Desjardins— MSc, Sept 2021-Sept 2023
Susan McLatchie— MSc, Sept 2020-June 2023
Thomas Grevesse— PhD, Jan 2018-Dec 2022
Sebastien Granville— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project) Sept 2021-May 2022
Camille Serra de Villeneuve— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project) Sept 2020-May 2021
Maya Chahine— BIOL490 student (undergraduate thesis project) Sept 2020-May 2021
Veronika Storck— Postdoctoral fellow, Sept 2019-2021 (co-supervised with M. Amyot, U de Montréal)
Susanne Kraemer— Postdoctoral fellow and Research Associate, 2017-2022
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— Postdoctoral fellow, 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 2018
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.