Dr. Corianne Tatariw recently joined Dr. Behzad Mortazavi's group as a post doctoral researcher. She hails from Herndon, Virginia and focuses her research on microbial biogeochemistry. She received a B.S. at Virginia Tech, M.S. at the University of Alabama and Ph.D. from the University of Maine.
Dr. Tatariw said her love of water started at a young age.
"I used to spend my after-school time playing at the creek by my parents' house, and would come home covered in mud, to my mother's annoyance. I could see how land use change in the area was causing the creek to change, and by the time I went to college I knew I wanted to work in a field that focused on water quality improvement and protection."
Dr. Tatariw is currently working on a Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative funded project to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on nitrogen cycling in the Chandeleur Islands.
Her previous research includes:
- M.S. research with Dr. Jennifer Edmonds at the University of Alabama (now at Nevada State College), studying the factors controlling sediment denitrification in the Cahaba River, a large, unregulated river in Alabama.
- Ph.D. research with Drs. Jean MacRae (University of Maine) and Kevin Simon (University of Auckland), studying the effects of human-driven disturbances on soil microbial community composition and ecosystem function.
- Bear Brook Watershed in Maine, a whole-watershed acid deposition experiment, to determine the effects of long-term nitrogen and sulfur enrichment on microbial functional composition and nutrient demand.
- University of Auckland as a NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute fellow comparing the factors regulating riparian zone denitrification in dairy pasture and native forest soils.
- Partnership study on the effect of snowpack removal on soil microbial community composition and respiration.
Dr. Tatariw hopes to one day develop her own research program. She'd also love to do more research abroad.
Her favorite marine animal is the microscopic Prochlorococcus, which is a very small marine cyanobacteria.
She also shared that one of her hobbies is cross country skiing, but she's not sure how to work it out in the South.