Assistant Professor Dr. Hoarfrost studies the interactions between biological systems and their environment in order to better understand the microbial drivers of the global carbon cycle and its impact on marine ecosystems and climate. The Hoarfrost lab develops deep learning and machine learning approaches to better capture the complexity of biology; develops high-throughput experimental techniques to enable data-driven hypothesis testing; and deploys technologies to demonstrate their performance in the field. Her research interests include: Modeling the biological carbon pump Characterizing uncharacterizable microbes and functions (‘microbial dark matter’) Foundation models and transfer learning for microbes and microbial communities Self-driving labs and active learning Marine biotech for microbially-driven sustainable materials and technologies Continuous real-time environmental monitoring of biological processes Astrobiology and space biology Education PhD, Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill AB, Biology (Geobiology concentration), Dartmouth College Courses Regularly Taught MARS 3450
