Interested in joining the lab? Please reach out to Prof. Hanson.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Nachiketa Bairagi
Dr. Bairagi earned a B.S. in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology from Jashore University of Science and Technology in Bangladesh, followed by a M.S. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Tokyo Institute of Technology where he worked on signal transduction in Cyanobacteria. Nachi is working on developing genetic systems for light responsive Actinobacteria in an NSF supported project led by Prof. Julie Maresca, now at SUNY-ESF.
Graduate Students
Alexa Bennett
Alexa obtained a Biotechnology A.A.S. from Delaware Technical Community College, a Marine Science B.S. from UD and worked in industry before re-joining the lab. She previously worked on Arctic tundra soil microbes and is currently working on the Delaware Microbiome Project. She is a Ph.D. student in Bioinformatics Data Science.
Casey Derieux
Casey joined the University of Delaware from their research assistant position at the Medical University of South Carolina, where they did work with Porphyromonas gingivalis and its interactions with the human mouth microbiome. They also obtained their Microbiology B.S. from Clemson University in 2020. They are currently a PhD student in the Microbiology Graduate Program at UD, where they will be focusing on the characterization of various Chlorobiaceae species.
Vadesse Lhilhi Noundou
Vadesse joined the lab from West Virginia State University where she earned an M.S. in Biotechnology focusing on anaerobic digestion followed by work on the microbial ecology of impacted watersheds. She is a Ph.D. student in Biological Sciences. She is working on Chlorobiaceae physiology to understand how Chlorobaculum tepidum forms and consumes elemental S(0). Vadesse has been supported for part of her degree as a Chemistry-Biology Interface fellow.
Ray Loughran
Ray joined UD from Southern Oregon University where she earned her B.S in Biology. She is a doctoral student in the Microbiology Graduate Program. Her research is on Acidobacteriota, which are abundant members of soil microbial communities across the planet. Her work is helping to assess Acidobacteriota diversity and understand how they contribute to carbon cycling in polar and alpine soils.
Aerin Rost-Nasshan
Aerin obtained her Biology B.S. from Salisbury University in 2023. She is currently a PhD student in the Microbiology Graduate Program. She is currently focusing on genetic tools to better understand and engineer Chlorobiaceae metabolism to make products from CO2.
Anthony Shepherd
Anthony earned his B.S. in Biological Sciences and M.S. in Applied Statistics, both from UD. He worked in industry with Solenis and has returned to UD for his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics Data Science. Anthony is currently supported by a Computational Biology Bioinformatics fellowship. He is analyzing microbial community data in geographical and ecological contexts to develop predictive tools currently focusing on cyanobacterial blooms in regional ponds.
Undergraduates
Christina Natalini
Christina is a Biological Science major who has become the lab's resident expert set of hands on extracting DNA from diverse environmental samples. She is also working on targeted isolation of interesting microbial lineages from Delaware soils based on community structure data.
