Dr. Jeffrey Marlow is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Boston University. He received his B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis (2007), M.Phil. from Imperial College London (2010), and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (2016). Dr. Marlow is interested in understanding how complex microbial communities shape and are shaped by their environments, particularly in the context of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen metabolism in coastal salt marshes, seafloor methane seeps, hydrothermal vents, polymetallic nodule fields, and recently emplaced lava flows. By focusing on culture-independent assessments of metabolic activity, the ecological roles of organisms working in concert can be clarified. By working across a range of systems, generalizable principles of life’s interaction with its environment can inform the search for life beyond Earth. Dr. Marlow has been named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Scialog Fellow, and an Explorers Club Rolex Explorer. He enjoys traveling, trail running, and fretting over the health of his house plants.

Dylan Mankel is a PhD student in the Ecology, Behavior, & Evolution program at Boston University. He received his B.S. in Astrophysics and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Michigan State University, where he monitored variable stars at the Campus Observatory and isolated microorganisms from samples collected from the Lost City Hydrothermal Field. Later, he began characterizing the geochemistry of serpentinizing systems at the NASA Ames Research Center and compiled thousands of organism-level metabolic rates to compare with energy consumption estimates of the global biosphere. At BU, Dylan strives to understand the relationships between microbes and their local habitats to determine the limits of life at pH and temperature extremes in extraterrestrial analog environments. He enjoys hiking, scuba diving, sailing, and finding the best bagel shop in town.

Erin Frates is a PhD student in the Ecology, Behavior, & Evolution program at Boston University. They received their B.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Rhode Island, where they studied benthic microbial ecology in Narragansett Bay. As an undergraduate, Erin made efforts to improve planetary protection strategies by using fluorescence microscopy to asses cleanrooms at NASA Goddard. After graduating in 2020, they began working at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, collecting and processing environmental DNA to investigate biodiversity in the Ocean Twilight Zone. Erin enjoys theatre, music, and traveling.