Exciting news: Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet

The Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP), which will be based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is a new Science and Technology Center funded by the National Science Foundation. Liz Kujawinski is the program director, with Mary Ann Moran at the University of Georgia as co-director and research coordinator. The center will integrate research, education, and knowledge transfer activities and support interdisciplinary science teams to close knowledge gaps in the identities and dynamics of molecules that serve as the “currencies” of elemental transfer within marine microbial communities and between the ocean and atmosphere.

Kujawinski lab research topics

The lab combines fundamental work in analytical chemistry, chemical oceanography, microbiology and microbial ecology to elucidate the controls on organic matter composition in aquatic systems. The research can be grouped into three general topics: model organisms, method development, and environmental samples.