Naomi M. Levine

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Quantitative and Computational Biology, and Earth Sciences

 

Contact Information
E-mail: n.levine ‘at’ usc.edu

 

Education
  • Ph.D. Chemical Oceanography, MIT – WHOI Joint Program, 2010
  • B.A. Geosciences, Princeton University, 2003
Postdoctoral Training
  • Postdoctoral Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2013
  • NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, 2010-2013
Summary Statement of Research Interests

My research focuses on understanding the interactions between climate and marine microbial ecosystem composition and function.  I seek to illuminate the mechanisms through which climate variability influences microbial systems and to identify how microbial systems in turn impact climate. We are developing innovative, interdisciplinary numerical models that allow us to understand how dynamics occurring at the scale of individual microbes impact large-scale ecosystem processes such as rates of global carbon cycling. We are tackling fundamental challenges in Biological Oceanography related to evolution and cycling of organic carbon – work that will allow us to generate more robust predictions of what our future world will look like.

 

Research Specialties
  • Interactions between climate and ecosystem composition and function
  • Impact of fine-scale heterogeneity and variability on microbial ecosystem dynamics
  • Impact of marine microbial plasticity, adaptation and evolution on carbon and nutrient cycling
Honors and Awards
  • Albert S. Raubenheimer Outstanding Junior Faculty Awardee, 2020
  • Simons Foundation Early Career Investigator in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution, 2017-2020
  • Sloan Research Fellowship, Ocean Sciences, 2016-2018
  • Gabilian Assistant Professorship, University of Southern California
  • NOAA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Climate and Global Change, 2010-2012