I am currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University where I am pursuing a degree under Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh. My primary area of research is in the microbial ecology of chemoautotrophic bacteria at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. For my dissertation research, I am examining the geographic structure present in Bathymodiolus mussel symbiont populations. These mussels are ubiquitously distributed at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps around the globe. They harbor intracellular chemosynthetic bacteria within the gills in specialized cells called bacteriocytes. These symbioses are mutualistic relationships in which the host provides the bacteria access to energy-rich substrates while the bacteria provides the host with nutrition derived from CO2 fixation.  Some mussels harbor distinct bacterial populations simultaneously, which are capable of utilizing different energy rich substrates including hydrogen sulfide and methane.