I joined the Poole Lab as a PhD student in April 2026 through the ILESLA (Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Landscape Award) Doctoral Training Programme. My research focuses on understanding what energises nitrogen fixation in rhizobial-legume symbioses, particularly the roles of carbon supply, pH, and electron transport. I also investigate the determinants of fixation efficiency, bacteroid packing, individual fixation rates, and developmental fates. My work is co-supervised by Dr. Jani Bolla.
Before starting my DPhil at Oxford, I completed a bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where I worked under the supervision of Professor Michael Marletta on electron transfer during polysaccharide monooxygenase catalysis. I then spent a year as an Assistant Researcher at Cornell University in Professor Scott Emr’s lab, using cryo-electron microscopy to determine the structures of protein complexes involved in membrane remodeling.
October 2025 – Year 1 of 4
Rhizosphere 