Elaine Luo, Ph.D.

Dr. Elaine Luo is a microbial oceanographer with training from University of Toronto, University of Hawaii, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Microbial engines drive biogeochemical cycles that influence habitability of life on Earth, yet ocean microbes, and in particular viruses, remain the most abundant yet understudied life-forms on our planet. Her lab uses short- and long-read metagenomics combined with marine ecology to study the diversity and function of under-studied viruses in aquatic environments, from lakes and rivers to the coast, and the open ocean to the deep sea.