Biology PhD candidate Corinne Vietorisz of the Bhatnagar Lab recently received a 2025 American Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). This Fellowship offsets scholars’ expenses during their final year of dissertation writing and is open to women in all fields of study, though those engaged in science, technology, engineering, and math fields, or those researching gender issues, are especially encouraged to apply.
The goal of Corinne’s research is to understand the roles that different groups of fungi and bacteria play in soil nutrient cycling, and their contributions relative to plant and abiotic factors. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing, meta-transcriptomics, and biogeochemistry methods, she examines how microbial community composition and gene expression are linked to soil net ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate mineralization in forests. Her dissertation gives new insights into how microbial communities impact soil nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, which is necessary to understand how nutrient availability, plant growth, and carbon cycling will respond to our rapidly changing world.
Congratulations, Corinne!