Microlab@Bristol includes a range of PDRAs, PhD students and MScR students. We also host a cohort of undergraduate Geography students for their dissertations each year.
Dr Chris Williamson
Group leader and Associate Professor in Polar Microbiology
Chris is an Associate Professor in Polar Microbiology within the Bristol Glaciology Centre, University of Bristol, and founded the MicroLab@Bristol research group in 2019. Chris’ research interests cover a range of organisms that inhabit marine, freshwater and cryospheric environments, though the bulk of his recent work has focussed on cryospheric microalgae and their interactions with both natural and anthropogenic change. He employs a range of field, laboratory and modelling techniques in his research, moving from the level of individual cells up to ecosystem-scale processes. He holds particular expertise in fluorescence-based methods for the study of autotroph physiology, the application of machine learning to environmental science, and remote field-work campaigns.
Email me: c.williamson@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Sonia Giulietti
Research Technician
Sonia holds a PhD in Marine Ecology and Biology from the Polytechnic University of Ancona, Italy (2021). Her work has focussed on identification of harmful microalgae through microscopy and genetics. Sonia is the lead technician of MicroLab’s AI for Environmental Sciences project, working to produce the largest image training dataset on UK freshwater microalgae to train our neural networks. She is an expert in freshwater algal taxonomy and microscopy.
Email me: sonia.giulietti@bristol.ac.uk
Maddy Lewis
PhD Student
Maddy has an MSc in BioInspired Innovation from Utrecht University (The Netherlands), and is currently working on her PhD as part of the MicroLab research group at Bristol in collaboration with the Ice Core group at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Her research is upon fine-scale spatial distribution of microbes in snow and ice, and how they interact and influence their microhabitats.
Email me: maddy.lewis@bristol.ac.uk
Paulina Cifuentes Uribe
PhD Student
Paulina did her Masters degree in Microbiology at the University of Concepción in Chile where she studied UV-resistant psychrotolerant bacteria from Chilean Patagonia and Antarctica. Her current PhD project involves working on symbiotic relationships around cyanobacteria from newly exposed soils from retreating glaciers in Chile and how they are related to soil colonization of early land plants. She also wants to test if these relationships were relevant for the evolution and early terrestrialization of land plants through genome sequencing and molecular clock methodologies.
Email me: pauli.cifuentesuribe@bristol.ac.uk
Muhammad Irfan
PhD Student
Muhammad is undertaking his PhD at Quaid-I-Azam University, Pakistan and was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to come and work with MicroLab@Bristol for 6 months studying the geochemical and microbial potential of glacial flour as a substrate for crop growth.
Email me: qh23088@bristol.ac.uk
Holly Liken
PhD Student
Holly is a University of Bristol graduate with a BSc in Geography. Holly is a PhD student on our AI for Environmental Sciences project responsible for CNN development, training and optimisation. Holly will spend her two first years building new CNNs for the UK water industry, then role these out in real-time toward the end of her project.
Email me: we20634@bristol.ac.uk
Jennifer Smith
PhD Student
Jenni is a PhD Student primarily based at Cardiff University working on the AI for Environmental Sciences project. Jenni is conducted complementary eDNA sequencing of UK freshwater microalgal communities to aid in our AI training dataset production as well as to allow advanced community composition analyses.
Email me: smithj109@cardiff.ac.uk
Ben Johnson
PhD Student
Ben studied Geography (BSc) at the University of Bristol, then completed his MScR with MicroLab@Bristol studying the spatial heterogeneity in Greenland glacier algal blooms. Ben is now working towards his PhD with MicroLab@Bristol, developing new techniques to capture the spatial heterogeneity of glacier algal blooms across the cryosphere and deploying these to provide rigorous ground truth datasets and new insight into glacier algal bloom formation and propagation .
Email me: qt21382@bristol.ac.uk
Katie Weir
PhD Student
Katie studied for her BSc in Geography at the University of Bristol, then completed her MScR with MicroLab@Bristol studying the potential for symbiotic rhizobia strains to drive nitrous oxide emission reductions from UK grasslands. Katie is continuing this work in her PhD with MicroLab@Bristol, working towards large-scale microbial-oriented solutions for nitrous oxide emission from UK grasslands.
Email me: katie.weir.2020@bristol.ac.uk
Anastasia Hambi
Masters-by-Research Student
Anastasia completed her BSc in Environmental Science from Queen Mary University of London and is currently working towards a Masters by Research with the Cabot institute and MicroLab. Her research will focus on micro/biogeochemical analyses of snowpack, soil and meltwaters associated with a long-term snow fence study in Svalbard.
Email me: uz24161@bristol.ac.uk
Joey Lim
Masters-by-Research Student
Joey is a current Masters by Research Student working on AI monitoring for snow and arctic algae under MicroLab and the Global Environmental Challenges with the Cabot institute. She did her undergraduate degree in Zoology at the University of Bristol. Joey’s research will focus on building and training CNNs in computer vision to recognise and differentiate between different algal species.
Email me: me20332@bristol.ac.uk
Rose Williamson
Masters-by-Research Student
Rose completed her BSc in Geography at the University of Bristol in 2023 and is now working towards her MScR in partnership with the Cabot Institute. Rose’s research focuses on agroecology, a sustainable approach to food production that emphasises soil health and the natural balance of ecosystems within agricultural systems. Using fieldwork and lab analyses, Rose will investigate soil microbial communities, nutrient cycles, and carbon capture, aiming to support the development of practical, resilient agricultural methods.
Email me: fy20353@bristol.ac.uk
Lucy Mulligan
Masters-by-Research Student
Lucy completed her BSc in Geography at the University of Bristol and is now undertaking her MScR with MicroLab@Bristol, focussed on constraining how snow and glacier algae modulate their productivity relative to key abiotic stressors and using this information to improve current snow and glacier algal bloom models.
Email me: uu22868@bristol.ac.uk
Affiliates of Microlab@Bristol
Damiano Duci
PhD Student
Damiano is undertaking his PhD as part of the NERC “Fresh” CDT and is based primarily at Bath University. Damiano’s project is assessing the ability of microalgae to communicate via electrical signalling and the application of monitoring electrical signalling as a means to detect and track harmful algal blooms in freshwater systems. Damiano is undertaking culturing aspects of his project at MicroLab@Bristol, establishing growth dynamics for his study species under various abiotic conditions.
Email me: dd647@bath.ac.uk
Margot Arnould-Petre
PhD Student
Margot is undertaking her PhD as part of the EU Horizon 2020 ITN “BEEP” project (Bio-inspired and bionic materials for enhanced photosynthesis) and is mainly based at The Natural History Museum, London. Margot’s project is examining the prevalence and role of iridescence in Rhodophyte macroalgal species. Margot is working with MicroLab@Bristol to take photophysiological measurements of iridescent seaweeds to establish their potential role in light harvesting/protection.
Email me: m.arnould-petre@nhm.ac.uk
Rory Burford
PhD Student
Rory is undertaking his PhD as part of NERC funded ”fresh” CDT and is based primarily at the University of Bristol. Rory’s project is examining the export of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from a variety of glacial systems across the cryosphere, its composition and potential bioavailability. Rory is affiliated with MicroLab@Bristol for the remainder of his PhD project.
Email me: rory.burford@bristol.ac.uk
Past Members
Dr Emily Broadwell
PhD Student
Emily completed her PhD with MicroLab@Bristol, studying snow and glacier algal communities (diversity, distribution, ecophysiology) across the cryosphere. Emily is now a postdoc on the Deep Purple project in Aarhus University, Denmark .
Email me: elmb@envs.au.dk
Dr Alex Bowles
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Alex worked as a MicroLab@Bristol postdoc on the iDAPT project, sequencing and interrogating glacial algal genomes, identifying cold adaptation mechanisms for life in ice, and using phylogenetic and molecular clock techniques to examine the evolution of cold adaptation through deep time and relations to early land plant evolution. Alex is now the Glasstone Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
Email me: alex.bowles@biology.ox.ac.uk
Dr Jaz Millar
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Jaz worked as a MicroLab@Bristol postdoc on the iDAPT project, developing new techniques to study glacier algal communities in-situ within surface ice environments and applying these across Alpine to Arctic settings to develop a new understanding of how they excel under icy conditions. Jaz is now a Lecturer at Cardiff University continuing work on glacier algae and cold-adapted microbial communities.
Email me: millarj1@cardiff.ac.uk
Rachel Pickford
MScR Student
Rachel completed her MScR with MicroLab@Bristol, employing laboratory-based incubations to study the flow of nutrients and carbon through supraglacial algal communities, and the consequences for ecological stoichiometry. Rachel is now an environmental consultant.
Miranda Nicholes
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Miranda undertook her PhD as part of the Black and Bloom project in supraglacial ecology and biogeochemistry and followed that up with a PDRA position within MicroLab@Bristol working to model the impact of supraglacial algal blooms on global carbon cycling. Miranda’s interests also include algal, bacterial and fungal interactions in supraglacial systems and their role in overall ecosystem function. In her spare time, Miranda plays lacrosse internationally and is currently Captain of the Welsh Women’s Lacrosse team.
Email me: miranda.nicholes@bristol.ac.uk
Carmen Espinosa Angona
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Carmen is a biotechnologist with an MSc in Water Science and Technology (University of Girona, Spain) and a PhD in Cyanobacterial metabolite production in Mediterranean rivers (BETA Technological Centre, Vic, Spain). Carmen undertook a 1-year PDRA position with MicroLab@Bristol working in collaboration with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water to apply machine learning to predict Cyanobacterial metabolite production within freshwater reservoirs. Carmen has now taken up an independent fellowship in Spain working on Taste and Odour metabolite production by cyanobacteria.
Email me: c.espinosaangona@bristol.ac.uk
Dilara Stenglein
MScR Student
Dilara has a BSc in Geography from the University of Bristol and worked toward her Masters by Research as part of MicroLab@Bristol in collaboration with the Cabot Institute for the Environment. Dilara’s research is concerned with the magnitude and impact of the ‘viral shunt’ in supraglacial environments.
Email me: ds17006@bristol.ac.uk
David Furley
MSc Student
David was an MSc student on the Climate Change Science and Policy masters program within the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. David’s research was concerned with the application of machine learning techniques for the monitoring of harmful algal blooms. David worked on MicroLab@Bristol’s JGI funded neural network project whilst also doing his master’s thesis in the group.
Email me: d.furley.2020@bristol.ac.uk
Want to work with us?
MicroLab@Bristol is always looking to expand its network of collaborators and recruit new team members. Keep an eye on our opportunities page for new PDRA or PhD job postings. If you’re interested in undertaking a Masters by Research with the MicroLab, see the Cabot Institute website for details of the programme and feel free to get in touch to discuss potential projects.
Chris is always happy to receive emails at c.williamson@bristol.ac.uk
