I am an oceanographer and microbial ecologist who seeks to understand how the interactions between microbes and viruses impact the life in the ocean and flow of matter on the planet. My scientific career started at Pomona College studying virus dynamics on coral reefs in collaboration with researchers at San Diego State University and the University of Hawaii. I earned my MSc and PhD in oceanography from the University of Washington studying the genomics and ecology of diatoms and their viruses. I then explored the interactions between marine cyanobacteria and their viruses as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar and Visiting Research Fellow at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. I'm now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University Long Beach.