Max Planck Tandem Group Leader at the National University of Colombia
Ph.D., Université Clermont Ferrand II
October 2013-Current, Project: “Investigating the biodegradation and ecological impacts of flame retardants”.
Emilie obtained her PhD in 2007 in the field of Microbial Ecology. Her areas of expertise span the fields of aquatic microbial ecology, community and ecosystem ecology, mycology, and environmental engineering. Her main project in the Gunsch Lab focused on the biodegradation of Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) a widely used flame-retardant, potentially toxic towards wildlife and human health. More specifically, she worked on the characterization of TBBPA biodegradation pathway and the microbial communities responsible for its degradation using both culture-dependent and molecular techniques, including next-generation sequencing. She was also involved in other projects looking at the effect of zero-valent Iron nanoparticles on the microbial activity and diversity of anaerobic digesters.
Contact Information
- Email Address: emilie.lefevre@duke.edu
Research Interests
- Microbial food web interactions
- Environmental factors structuring microbial communities
- Spatial scaling of microbial diversity
- Microbial community response to environmental and anthropogenic perturbations
- Microbial remediation