Dr. Alison Murray

Title: Associate Research Professor
Affiliation: Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences
Location: DRI Reno
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 775.673.7361

Keywords: microbial ecology, genomics, extreme environments, Antarctic, polar, biogeochemistry, microbial diversity, astrobiology, biological oceanography, adaptation

Professional Interests

Dr. Murray is a molecular microbial ecologist with research interests centered around a common theme of utilizing molecular biological and genomic approaches to describe the diversity of life, understand the evolutionary history, ecological roles, and physiological capacity and capabilities of microorganisms that inhabit environments (or other organisms) several of which are considered to be at the extremes of where life exists. Dr. Murray has had long term interests in developing technologies to study microorganisms in the natural environment. Recent work has been dedicated to developing environmental genomics technologies for studying gene expression in organisms sampled directly from the environment, thereby circumventing the need for cultivation. Her research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon oceanography, geosciences, computational biology, and chemistry. She collaborates with a number of scientists with expertise in these fields.

Dr. Murray’s research has taken her and members of her research group to the Antarctic Peninsula and the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, deep sea hydrothermal vents of the East Pacific Rise, and Yellowstone National Park to study the microorganisms inhabiting these diverse, and extreme ecosystems. She has also worked locally in Lake Tahoe to characterize the diversity of organisms throughout the water column and in different periods of stratification through the year.

Research Areas of Expertise

• Microbial diversity and evolution
• Archaeal and bacterial ecology
• Microbial genomics, specifically, functional and comparative genomics
• Development of molecular biology techniques to solve ecological problems

Research Project Web Sites

• Lake Vida Project - Geochemistry and Microbiology of the Extreme Aquatic Environment in Lake Vida, East Antarctica

Research Highlights

• Lake Vida Research in the News