Contract Renewal

Well, good news here. My NRC contract was renewed for a second year. It's nice to be employed. However, since the NRC fellowship is essentially limited to two years, it is time to start looking for another position. I have applied for some grants as well, but it will be quite a while before I hear about the results of those applications.

Things are starting to get quite busy. I have a number of sequencing projects to support a large amount of geochemical data acquired in a long-term project here at Ames. The projects involved adding nutrients (ammonia,nitrate or phosphorus) to microbial mats maintained in the greenhouses here, and a second major experiment in which salinity and sulfate levels were modulated. So, we are examining major microbial functional groups: methanogens, sulfate-reducers, photosynthetic populations, methane oxidizers, and nitrogen-fixers. More updates on the results of these experiments soon.

Also, happy new years (shana tova) and happy birthday (to me).