Malak Tfaily
Dr. Malak Tfaily is a staff scientist in the mass spectrometry group in EMSL. She has been assisting EMSL users in implementing the next-generation state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, and infrared and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques to understand carbon (C) cycling in the environment. Dr. Tfaily has extensive experience especially in applying Ion cyclotron resonance Mass Spectrometry to characterizing organic matter composition from different terrestrial and aquatic systems, and helping users interpret these data to enrich the understanding of biotic and abiotic processes that impact carbon dynamics such as microbial respiration, photo degradation, and anthropogenic activities. She is also interested in investigating the effect of climate change on C dynamics in the terrestrial ecosystem. Dr. Tfaily has recently developed extraction protocols for the characterization of carbon compounds in soil organic matter (SOM), thereby providing the chemical and structural detail needed to develop mechanistic descriptions of soil carbon flow processes.
- 2016-current: Mass Spectrometry Soil Scientist
- 2013-current: Postdoctoral Research Assistant, EMSL, PNNL
2011-2013: Dr. Tfaily was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University from 2011-2013, focusing on investigate the ability of soil and dissolved organic matter and the composition of decomposer microbial communities in response to the climatic forcing of environmental processes that determine carbon storage and sequestration in peatlands using high resolution analytical techniques.
From 2007-2011, Dr. Tfaily was a graduate research and teaching assistant at the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University, where her research focused on understanding how the molecular composition of peat porewater dissolved organic matter (DOM) influences its reactivity and hence its probable response to climate change.
- 2007-2011: Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, Florida State University, USA
- 2002-2006: Bachelor degree in chemistry, Lebanese University, Beirut
- The Dorothy and Russel Johnsen Dissertation Award Nominee-Spring 2012,Florida State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
- Recipient of the Outstanding Upper Level Chemistry Laboratory Teaching Assistant Award 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 given by the Florida State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (OTAA) Nominee-Spring 2011, Florida State University
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (OTAA) Nominee-Spring 2008, Florida State University
Since joining EMSL, as a participant in a laboratory directed research and development project for terrestrial ecosystem initiative, Dr. Tfaily has been focused on developing extraction protocols for the characterization of carbon compounds in SOM, thereby providing the chemical and structural detail needed to develop mechanistic descriptions of soil carbon flow processes.
In addition, Dr. Tfaily has been working with several users to understand the effects on temperature on SOM mineralization, the impacts of managements practices to SOM and DOM in forest ecosystems, and C cycling in Northern boreal forests.
Publications
2016
- JC Stegen, JK Fredrickson, MJ Wilkins, A Konopka, WC Nelson, EV Arntzen, WB Chrisler, RK Chu, RE Danczak, SJ Fansler, DW Kennedy, CT Resch, MM Tfaily. 2016. "Groundwater-Surface Water Mixing Shifts Ecological Assembly Processes and Stimulates Organic Carbon Turnover." Nature Communications 711237. 10.1038/ncomms11237
- S Hodgkins, MM Tfaily, DC Podgorski, C McCalley, S Saleska, PM Crill, V Rich, J Chanton, WT Cooper. 2016. "Elemental composition and optical properties reveal changes in dissolved organic matter along a permafrost thaw chronosequence in a subarctic peatland." Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 187123-140. 10.1016/j.gca.2016.05.015
2015
- MM Tfaily, RK Chu, N Tolic, KM Roscioli, CR Anderton, L Pasa-Tolic, EW Robinson, NJ Hess. 2015. "Advanced solvent based methods for molecular characterization of soil organic matter by high-resolution mass spectrometry." Analytical Chemistry 87(10)5206-5215. 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b00116