Jenni Hultman

Microorganisms drive the foundational processes upon which all life on Earth depends. I have studied microbes from the thermophilic composting processes to permafrost that has been frozen for tens of thousands of years. I have also examined the microbial communities in the Baltic Sea water column, Finnish bedrock, microbes causing food spoilage and spread of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment as well as role of microbes in carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Central to all these studies has been creating knowledge of microbial community composition, function and how these can be studied, and in all I have used microbial bioinformatics. My interest is in high impact molecular microbial ecology research and interaction of microbes with other biotic and abiotic variables. By combining cutting edge high-throughput sequencing technologies, biotechnology, genetics of microorganisms, bioinformatics, and development of new techniques I want to study the genetic response of both the arctic microbes and microbes in restored peatland ecosystems in changing environmental conditions. I want to combine my knowledge on soil processes, microbial community and microbial activity analyses to fully understand the biochemical cycles in soil, which are largely influenced by the microbial activity. I believe that understanding microbial processes at a fundamental level can help inform sustainable and practical approaches to maintain healthy ecosystems.