BSc, University of Toronto; PhD, Caltech. 2008, joined the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Continuously fascinated by the fact that communities of microorganisms are found everywhere in nature and the built environment, and how they play important roles in processes that directly impact human health and the environment. Research focuses on using interdisciplinary approaches, from synthetic biology to microbial genomics and big data, to both understand and engineer microbial community form and function.