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EESA Postdoc Places at Lab’s 2020 SLAM Competition1 min read

by jennynuss on October 2, 2020

Awards Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Ecology Department Uncategorized
Headshot photo of Sara Gushgari-Doyle

EESA postdoc Sara Gushgari-Doyle and tied for second place in the Sept. 17 finals of Berkeley Lab’s annual SLAM competition with her talk on cultivating difficult-to-culture microorganisms.

The 2% of microbes on Earth that we can grow in the lab have led to groundbreaking discoveries, such as the vaccine for malaria, but can you imagine what the other 98% could give us?

Sara Gushgari-Doyle’s approach to cultivating difficult-to-culture microorganisms tied her for second place in the Sept. 17 finals of Berkeley Lab’s annual SLAM competition with Mariah Parker, Energy Sciences.

“Imagine what the other 98% could give us: New antibiotics that will keep us ahead of resistance. Organisms that can mineralize salt out of seawater for on-demand desalination anytime, anywhere with no energy expended. Microbes that remove dangerous pathogens from indoor air,” Gushgari-Doyle said. “The unknown 98% will shape the world around us in ways we haven’t yet begun to imagine.”

Gushgari-Doyle, who was one of two EESA postdocs represented among a dozen SLAM finalists, works in the Climate & Ecosystems Sciences Division in the Ecology Department. Sara is using computer programming and machine learning to mine the big data from real-world microbial communities to mimic those conditions back in the lab and increase that 2%.

EESA postdoc fellow, James Dennedy-Frank also presented his work at the 2020 SLAM – expanding on his work with computer models and isotope tracers to understand how watersheds function. 

The SLAM’s first-place prize, went to Revathi Jambunathan, Computing Sciences. The People’s Choice, the finalist that had the most votes from the audience, was Jonelle Basso, Biosciences Area. This year’s winners were chosen by a judging panel, which included Julia Hatton, Letti Light, Don Medley, Gabriela Monsalve, Horst Simon, and Lynn Yarris.

News & Events

EESA Celebrates International Day of Women & Girls in Science2 min read

February 24, 2021

On 11 February, the United Nations, Berkeley Lab, and other organizations worldwide marked the 6th annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The day focuses on the reality that science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of international development goals, such as climate change mitigation. Susan Hubbard, Associate Laboratory Director…

EESA Scientists Contribute to DOE GTO Research on Critical Minerals2 min read

  Scientists in the Energy Geosciences Division are contributing to research sponsored by the DOE Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) investigating the potential extraction of lithium, rare earth elements, and other critical minerals that are dissolved constituents of hot geothermal brines that are used to produce  electricity. Far more information is currently needed, for instance, about…

CSA News Calls Out Recent NGEE-Tropics Research2 min read

February 22, 2021

  CSA News, the magazine of three related societies: the Agronomy Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, published an article in its January 2021 issue describing research led by research scientist Robinson Negrón Juárez, on behalf of the NGEE-Tropics project. The article highlights a paper published recently…

Two EESA Women Chosen for the 2020 Women @ The Lab Awards2 min read

February 9, 2021

Two EESA women, Sandy Chin and Laura Nielsen Lammers, were chosen for the 2020 Women @ The Lab awards. They join an esteemed cohort of 15 women across Berkeley Lab who have made and continue to make significant contributions in the areas of leadership, science, operations, mentorship, and outreach.  Sandy Chin, who recently assumed the…

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