Esra Mescioglu


PhD Graduate

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

emesciog[at]ucsc[dot]edu

Research interests: Microbial communities in aerosols and their effects on the ecosystems

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

I’m originally from Turkey, but spent ~14 years in Boston before moving to Santa Cruz. I went to college at the University of Massachusetts, Boston where I got a B.S. in Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences. During my undergrad I did research on a range of topics (biogeochemistry at UMB, marine microbiology at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, and evolutionary biology at Harvard University). My work in graduate school has focused aeromicrobiology, and I have been fortunate enough to work with amazing collaborators in Israel and Florida (USGS). My top hobby is surfing, and I love gardening when it’s flat.

Research

My project is very interdisciplinary and incorporates atmospheric, oceanographic and biological sciences. The goal of my work is to better understand the microbial communities in aerosols and their effects on the ecosystems after deposition. I use traditional culture methods and metagenomics to identify and characterize airborne microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) and their impacts on marine ecosystems as well as their antibiotic resistant capabilities. I use R to analyze my data, and I like learning about different statistical methods.