Dr Emma Ransome; PI
Emma is a Lecturer at Imperial College London, based in the Department of Life Sciences at Silwood Park. She completed her PhD on the effects of global change on coral-microbe associations at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (and the University of Plymouth), UK, in 2013. Emma then moved to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, USA for her first postdoctoral position, where she worked on the biodiversity and biogeography of cryptic reef communities across the Pacific. In 2016 she returned to the UK to take a postdoctoral position at Imperial College London investigating the effects of global warming on freshwater microbes. This led to a Researcher Co-Investigator role on the NERC grant “A novel framework for predicting emerging chemical stressor impacts in complex ecosystems”, in 2019. Emma started her lectureship at Imperial College London in January 2020.
Dr Margaux Steyaert; Postdoc
Margaux is researching the diversity and drivers of coral reef benthic communities in an exciting international project run by the Ransome lab, called FutureReef. She has just finished her PhD at the University of Oxford (2023). Margaux graduated with a Bachelors in Zoology and a Masters in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London in 2017. For her PhD, she used artificial reef devices to collect genetic samples and images of cryptobenthic organisms, with the aim to increase our knowledge of these under-studied communities. A keen scuba-diver, she has experience working in remote field locations but also enjoys mountain sports such as trekking, skiing and climbing.
Dr Balig Panossian; Postdoc
Balig is researching the role of viruses in shaping the interactions between the soil microbiome and plant pathogenic fungi. He is trained as a molecular microbiologist who transitioned to computational biology during his MSc in microbial genomics. He then did his PhD in evolutionary genomics of animal-microbe interactions at Queen Mary University of London. His previous experience in microbial metagenomics ranges from hospital-acquired human pathogens, endosymbionts of deep-sea annelids, and defensive symbionts of aphids. His focus is now to optimise and implement analysis pipelines for the large-scale metagenome sequencing data from soil samples as part of the Green Microbiome project funded by the UREN foundation.
Luke Herring; PhD student
Luke is funded by the Leverhulme Centre for the Holobiont. He is using metagenomics and metabolomics to decipher the impacts of anthropogenic stressors on host-microbiome relationships in the coral reef cryptobiome in the Red Sea, how this affects metabolite diversity and therefore ecosystem functioning. Luke graduated with a BSc in Zoology from the University of Derby and an MRes in Marine Biology from the University of Plymouth. He has worked as a coral husbandry technician on ex situ coral spawning and as a laboratory technician in commercial eDNA. Luke is an aspiring reef keeper with interests including scuba diving, baking and volunteering at public zoos and aquariums. He is co-supervised by Dr Marc-Emmanuel Dumas (Imperial), Dr Chris Bowler (Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) and Dr Susana Carvalho (KAUST, Saudi Arabia).
Amelia Newman; PhD student
Amelia is on the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP with Ocean Conservation Trust as a CASE partner and is based at based at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on enhancing seagrass restoration using ex situ propagation techniques. Previously she was the Seagrass Aquaculture Technician Lead at Ocean Conservation Trust. Amelia is co-supervised by Prof Mike Sweet (University of Derby) and Dr Chris Yesson (ZSL).
Rosie Dowell; PhD student
Rosie is on the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP with NatureMetrics as a CASE partner and is based at based at Imperial College London and the Institute of Zoology (ZSL). Her research focuses on developing and applying environmental DNA (eDNA) methods to assess biodiversity patterns and drivers in the Chagos Archipelago, Western Indian Ocean. Rosie graduated from the University of Glasgow with and MSci in marine and freshwater biology (2019). This included a work placement year at Bermuda Institute of Ocean sciences where Rosie used BRUVS and eDNA to study mesophotic reefs. Rosie is a keen swimmer and scuba diver who also loves exploring the food scene in London and baking on the weekends. Rosie is co-supervised by Dr Catherine Head and Dr Chris Yesson (ZSL).
Lab alumni
Jake Williams; PhD student
Jake was researching holobiont responses to stress on Pacific coral reefs using next-generation biomonitoring techniques (metabarcoding and metabolomics). He was based at Imperial College London and was funded by the Quantitative Methods in Ecology and Evolution Center for Doctoral Training (QMEE CDT). Jake passed his PhD viva in 2024 with no corrections and has since taken up a Postdoc at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) with Dr Nathalie Pettorelli.
Yilan Aolei; Research Assistant
Yilan was researching phage ecology, in particular the effect of environmental stressors on virus persistence and bacteriophage interactions. Yilan graduated with a Bachelors in Marine Environmental Science in the Ocean University of China, and a MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London in 2023. Yilan is now working for a Biosciences company in the Netherlands.
Laura Bachmaier; Research Assistant
Laura was researching blue carbon dynamics in seagrass ecosystems with a focus on high carbon sites along the UK coast. This work was supported by Ocean Conservation Trust and an Imperial College FSRF grant. Laura was a recent MSc graduate from Imperial College London’s Ecology, Evolution and Conservation course and has now started a PhD at the University of Plymouth.
Faye Hobbs; Technician
Faye was researching coronaviruses and bacteriophage, in particular the effect of environmental stressors on virus persistence and bacteriophage interactions. She was based at Imperial College London and obtained her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at the University of Surrey in 2020.
Dr Scott Jones; Postdoc
Scott is a virologist with a particular interest in genetic variation and viral detection. He has a PhD from the University of Nottingham and a Masters from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Scott’s work involved testing novel methods for pathogen detection in wastewater funded through an Innovate UK grant.
Dr Tom Smith; Postdoc
Tom is a microbial ecologist, broadly interested in how organisms, populations and communities respond and adapt to changing environments. Please find more details on his webpage here. Tom’s work involved investigating the potential of temperate seagrass beds as a carbon offsetting tool (private funding).