Astrobiologist of the Month
May
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Every month we feature two astrobiologists from around the world. Our aim is for everyone to get to know each other, connect and network. If you would like to be featured, let us know here.
✉️ william [dot] brazelton [at] utah [dot] edu
🌎 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Opportunities
Undergraduate students
PhD students
Postdot fellows
WILLIAM BRAZELTON
“I'm a microbiologist and oceanographer who studies weird life in strange environments. I'm a big believer in curiosity-driven and exploration-oriented science. My technical expertise is in computational analyses of large genomic datasets, and all of my projects are highly interdisciplinary and collaborative.”
Position
Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Utah
Career Pathway
B.S. in Genetics & Cell Biology, University of Minnesota: As an undergraduate student, I loved molecular biology but was not excited about the industrial complex surrounding biotechnology. I learned about this thing called "astrobiology", and I realized I could combine my two loves of science fiction and weird biology into an actual career.
M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography and Astrobiology, University of Washington. When I decided to go to graduate school in oceanography, I had not yet seen an ocean in person. I soon discovered that I get very seasick. Oops.
Research Topics
General topics: hydrothermal systems, metagenomic analyses, metabolic evolution, limits of life, origin of life.
Environmental study sites: Lost City hydrothermal field, Bonneville Salt Flats, Great Salt Lake, Crystal Geyser, Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory, the Tablelands, Voltri Massif springs.
I also have projects on antibiotic resistance in local watersheds, wastewater treatment facilities, and hospitals.
Why did you decide to become an Astrobiologist?
I pursued astrobiology in graduate school because, at the time, it seemed much more intellectually stimulating and challenging than pretending to cure cancer. I have stayed with it throughout my career because the astrobiology community is a remarkable collection of kind, interesting, and interdisciplinary researchers and educators. Furthermore, I find the search for the distribution of life across the universe as an inspiring and worthy grand goal for humanity.
If your lab/research group had a nickname, what would it be?
Extreme Microbiology
Are you accepting students?
Undergraduate and PhD students
Contact me if you have an idea for a postdoctoral fellowship application!!