Dr. Zoey Werbin of the Bhatnagar and Dietze Labs was selected as the winner of the 2025 Belamarich Award for her doctoral dissertation in Biology titled “Forecasting the Soil Microbiome.” The selection committee was impressed by Zoey’s ability to quickly and effectively adapt bioinformatics tools to predict the distribution of microbial populations, and implement new methods for metagenomic analyses. The committee also appreciated the fact that Zoey’s tools and databases will be broadly useful to the wider research community, and her willingness to lend her skills to the projects of other lab members. More information about her research is below.
Zoey studied the ecology of the soil microbiome, using tools from bioinformatics, Bayesian statistics, and synthetic biology. She developed short-term microbial abundance forecasts at a continental scale, as well as fine-scale predictions of soil nutrient cycling. She’s interested in using the power of microbial communities to solve the biggest problems facing humans and our planet. Her graduate work was funded by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, as well as a Microbiome Fellowship from the Boston University Microbiome Initiative.
As in previous years, there will be a Belamarich Award Night to celebrate our award winner. The night includes a seminar given by the awardee, a brief ceremony, and a reception. The Seminar will be held on Monday, October 6th at 4:00pm in BRB 113. The Award Ceremony will take place immediately after, with the Reception following down the hall in BRB 117, from ~5:00pm-6:30pm. We are honored to have the Belamarich family joining us again to celebrate this year’s award winner.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Belamarich Award Night!
More about the Belamarich Award:
Frank A. Belamarich joined the BU Biology Department in 1963 as an assistant professor where he quickly gained international recognition for his research in the field of comparative hemostasis, the process of blood clotting. Throughout his tenure at BU he was a popular teacher of a core course in cell biology which he developed. Belamarich maintained research laboratories in Boston as well as at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in Falmouth, MA as part of the BU Marine Program.
Congratulations, Zoey!
