Joy Custer

Joy is pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Science at the University of Arizona. She works in the Microbial Ecophysiology lab of Dr. Paul Carini, and her research is focused on cultivating and identifying Bradyrhizobium sp. from soil in order to investigate the genomic and physiological differences within the genus across a climatic gradient. Since Bradyrhizobiumis a globally abundant and ubiquitous soil microbe, this information about the diversity of the genus can provide key insights into microbial distribution patterns and their role in soil fertility and biogeochemistry.