Microbes

Dynamic model helps scientists understand healthy lakes to heal sick ones

Lake Mendota near Madison, Wisconsin. Georgia Tech researchers used long-term data on the lake’s microbial communities to develop what may be the largest-ever dynamic model of how those communities interact. The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Kostas Konstantinidis says that could help restore sick lakes and may one day help scientists better understand the human body’s microbiome. (Photo: Good Free Photos)

Development of a dynamic model for microbial populations in healthy lakes could help scientists understand what’s wrong with sick lakes, prescribe cures and predict what may happen as environmental conditions change. Those are among the benefits expected from an ambitious project to model the interactions of some 18,000 species in a well-studied Wisconsin lake.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Dykstra joins other ‘rising stars’ at selective MIT workshop

Fourth-year graduate student Christine Dykstra joined 19 other women from around the country at a small gathering last week for early career engineers planning to enter academia. The Rising Stars Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is designed to foster scientific conversation between the next generation of civil and environmental engineering faculty members and help them build their careers.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Studying how one beach’s microbes broke down the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill could help speed up the process next time

When oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill first began washing ashore on Pensacola Municipal Beach in June 2010, populations of sensitive microorganisms, including those that capture sunlight or fix nitrogen from the air, began to decline. At the same time, organisms able to digest light components of the oil began to multiply, starting the process of converting the pollutant to carbon dioxide and biomass.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Computational tools will help identify microbes in complex environmental samples

<p>Microbes of interest to clinicians and environmental scientists rarely exist in isolation. Organisms essential to breaking down pollutants or causing illness live in complex communities, and separating one microbe from hundreds of companion species can be challenging for researchers seeking to understand environmental issues or disease processes. A new National Science Foundation-supported project will provide computational tools designed to help identify and characterize the gene diversity of the residents of these microbial communities.</p>

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278