​Maya Gomes (PI) is an assistant professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Johns Hopkins. My primary research interest is the use of sulfur isotope and other geochemical records to reconstruct the coupled biogeochemical cycling of sulfur, carbon, and oxygen across important Earth-life transitions. In order to do this, I take both a modern and ancient perspective. I use modern lakes, microbial mats, and coastal environments as natural experimental systems to explore how sulfur isotope and other geochemical signals record environmental information in sediments.  Then, I apply the results to the geological record in order to explore how the sulfur cycle interacts with other biogeochemical cycles (C, P, N, Fe, etc.) to regulate Earth surface oxygen levels during the major evolutionary transitions and climate perturbations.  download CV
 

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Dana Brenner (Senior Lab Manager) is a research scientist with both geology and general environmental science interests.  My research focuses on understanding chemical and geochemical processes in the environment.  I use a combination of laboratory experimentation, fieldwork, and computational modeling to connect micro-scale reactions to macro-scale natural processes.  My research projects range from evaluating metamorphic thermal signatures with carbonate clumped isotopes to quantifying watershed scale denitrification.
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Kelsey Moore (Blaustein Postdoctoral Fellow) is a geobiologist with a deep love of microbes and a curiosity about microbial life on early Earth. Her research centers around the preservation of biosignatures and what taphonomy can tell us about how microbes interact with the chemical environment. This includes both the impacts that microbes had on their environment and, in parallel, the impacts that environmental conditions have on microbes, their evolution, and their preservation in the rock record. She uses a range of experimental and analytical techniques that combine modern microbes and ancient fossils. With these tools, she addresses questions related to the evolution of the biosphere on Earth, chemical conditions in ancient environments, and the preservation of organic matter and fossils. 

Personal website: https://www.kelseyrmoore.com/
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Isabel "Izzy" Baker (Agouron Postdoctoral Fellow) is broadly interested in the co-evolution of life and Earth. Prior to joining the Comparative Geobiology Laboratory, Izzy completed her PhD at Harvard, where she studied how deep-sea iron-respiring bacteria have adapted to the rise of oxygen in Earth's oceans. She then worked as a federal scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory, where her efforts focused on developing benthic microbial fuel cells (a type of "bio-electricity") and exploring how soil microbes interact with organic pollutants. At Johns Hopkins, Izzy will be working to disentangle what combination of biological and planetary processes led to enigmatic signals in Earth's rock record with the hope that these findings can help us understand how life has evolved and changed the face of our planet, forecast Earth's future in the face of human impacts, and potentially constrain biomarkers in the search for life beyond Earth. When she's not marveling at microorganisms in the lab, she's usually out exploring the Baltimore harbor with her favorite macroorganism (Lucky the dog) or listening to musical theater soundtracks.
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Kabir Mohammed (Graduate Student) is a Future Investigator in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Fellow.  His current research interests are in the evolution of metabolism and the coevolution of life and environment.  He has previously worked in animal magnetoreception and microbial metabolism.










 

Jacqueline Dodd (Graduate Student) specializes in examining the origins of the organic carbon isotope signal in the rock record, with a focus on understanding the relative contributions of various sources of organic matter such as re-mobilized kerogen, marine primary producers, and terrestrial plants. Her research also involves investigating the re-establishment of biogeochemical cycles in microbial mats following perturbations like hurricanes, and how these cycles impact carbonate precipitation and dissolution. To explore these complex processes, Jackie employs a range of techniques including stable isotope geochemistry, liquid and gas chromatography, Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, among other geochemical and biological analyses. Outside her research, Jackie serves as a mentor for the Ingenuity Project, where she guides high school students as a scientific advisor throughout a year-long research practicum. Jackie has also been working with the Johns Hopkins Office of Sustainability toward Green Lab certification for the Gomes, Viete, and Smith Lab groups within the Earth & Planetary Sciences department at JHU. 

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Nathan Otto (Graduate Student) is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. He is interested in how microbial metabolisms drive biogeochemical cycles, and how these interactions change in response to mass extinctions and geologic processes. He is also interested in isotopic biosignatures and what they can tell us about life on the early Earth and beyond. His previous work included studying microbial pathogenesis. Nathan enjoys hiking, kayaking, and board games. 

Alumni

Katelyn Gray (Postdoctoral Fellow)
​Kalev Hantsoo (Graduate Student)
​Minming Cui (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Rui Jin (Graduate Student)
Sydney Riemer (Undergraduate Student)
Cecilia Howard (Undergraduate Student)
Nicole Stevens (Undergraduate Student)
Cassidy Quiros (Undergraduate Student)
Ari Harris-Kupfer (Ingenuity Project Student)
Charlie Vey (Ingenuity Project Student)