Stockbridge Ph.D. Student Wins U.S. Department of Energy Honor

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science has selected 62 graduate students from 50 universities across the United States, including Care Anderson, a Ph.D.candidate in soil biogeochemist Marco Keiluweit’s lab at the Stockbridge School, in the latest round of its Office of Science Graduate Student Research program.

The program provides supplemental funds for graduate students to conduct part of their thesis research at one of the DOE’s 14 national laboratories, usually for three months to one year, in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist.

Anderson says, “For my DOE award, I’ll be working with scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to understand the vulnerability of soil carbon to drastic flooding events in high-elevation floodplain systems.” Climate change is shifting snowmelt patterns in high-elevation floodplains, making them susceptible to increased floods and droughts, they add.

“Specifically, I will investigate how microorganisms in floodplain soils change how they metabolize soil carbon compounds in response to flooding events. I will do this by integrating a large dataset that includes a suite of ‘multi-omics’datathat can tell us what microorganisms are present in the soil and what they do. This will help us predict whether floodplains will store or release carbon in the future.” 

Further, Anderson says, “I’m excited for this opportunity because it will illuminate the complex world of soils in new ways. Learning how to analyze extensive microbial datasets is not only useful for my dissertation project, but it’s also a skill I hope to keep applying to questions of sustainability and climate resilience as I continue digging deeper into soil science.”

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette says, “These graduate student awards prepare young scientists for STEM careers critically important to the DOE mission and the advancement of American science and technology. We are proud of the accomplishments these outstanding awardees have already made and look forward to following their achievements in the years to come. They represent the future leadership and innovation that will allow American science and engineering to excel in the 21st century.”

Anderson, who says they are “passionate about fostering inclusion in science – in the classroom, lab, field and beyond,” received their M.S. from the University of California, Davis, and recently worked at the Pacific Northwest National Lab examining carbon cycling in boreal environments.

DOE says the awardees were selected from a diverse pool of university-based graduate applicants based on merit peer review by external scientific experts. Their projects “demonstrate strong alignment with the priority mission areas of DOE Office of Science that have a high need for workforce development.”