Dr. Meredith Steele, PhD
Associate Professor, Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
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CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
ANGINEH PARSADANIANS, PhD Student: Angineh Parsadanians is a microbiologist with a relevant educational background in the biological sciences. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a minor in Microbiology. After completing her undergraduate studies, Angineh pursued a Master's degree in Food Microbiology, where she studied pathogenic microorganisms' impact on food safety and quality. With a passion for addressing critical environmental issues, Angineh took her academic journey to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. r at Virginia Tech in the Fall of 2022. Her research focus centers on irrigation water quality, specifically the relationship between fecal indicator bacteria and salinity in various irrigation water sources and types. She is expanding her understanding of water quality in agriculture, with the goal of promoting the use of alternative and reusable water sources to reduce reliance on traditional, often finite resources.
UMME FATEMA PIU, PhD Student: Fatema is from Bangladesh. She completed my undergrad in Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, with a major in Environmental Engineering where she focused on ground water quality. Fatema then pursued my Master's in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University, where her research focused on modeling crop evapotranspiration. In the fall of 2023, she joined Dr. Steele's lab, where her research focuses on the impact of freshwater salinization on fecal indicator bacteria across the United States and how salinity affects soil biogeochemistry.
SARA PETERS, Undergraduate Researcher: Sara joined the lab in winter of 2023 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. She is currently working on her own project on the effects of salinization on greenhouse gas losses from leaf litter in aquatic ecosystems.
HAILEY SIMPSON, Undergraduate Researcher: Hailey joined the lab in Fall of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab, including degradation of biopolymers.
ANNA BLASDELL, Undergraduate Researcher: Anna joined the lab in May of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. She is currently working on her own project on the heterogeneity of temperature in urban soils.
JOHN GLASS, Undergraduate Researcher: Anna joined the lab in winter of 2023 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. He is also currently working on his own project on the effects of heterogeneity of temperature in urban soils on soil carbon.
KARLIE POWELL, Undergraduate Researcher: Karlie joined the lab in Fall of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab, including degradation of biopolymers.
SARA PETERS, Undergraduate Researcher: Sara joined the lab in winter of 2023 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. She is currently working on her own project on the effects of salinization on greenhouse gas losses from leaf litter in aquatic ecosystems.
HAILEY SIMPSON, Undergraduate Researcher: Hailey joined the lab in Fall of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab, including degradation of biopolymers.
ANNA BLASDELL, Undergraduate Researcher: Anna joined the lab in May of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. She is currently working on her own project on the heterogeneity of temperature in urban soils.
JOHN GLASS, Undergraduate Researcher: Anna joined the lab in winter of 2023 and supported a variety of projects in the lab. He is also currently working on his own project on the effects of heterogeneity of temperature in urban soils on soil carbon.
KARLIE POWELL, Undergraduate Researcher: Karlie joined the lab in Fall of 2022 and supported a variety of projects in the lab, including degradation of biopolymers.
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ALUMNI
STEPHEN DEVILBISS, PhD student: Stephen is an aquatic ecologist from the great state of Wisconsin. He joined the lab in Fall of 2017 and graduated in December of 2020. His dissertation focused on the effects of salinization on the microbial community and biogeochemical processes. OLUWATOSIN "Tosin" OGUNMAYOWA, MS student: Tosin is from Nigeria. He received his masters degree at Tennessee State University with research focus on bio/phytoremediation of mixed-contaminant soils. Following graduation, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Benin, Nigeria where he taught Introduction to Soil Science. He joined the Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences program at Virginia Tech in the Fall of 2016 and graduated in Spring 2020. Jinshi Jian, PhD Student: Jinshi is from China where he completed a masters degree at Northwest A&F University, focused on sediment delivery ratio estimation at Songhua River Basin, Northeast China. He joined Virginia Tech in the Fall of 2014 and worked on global soil respiration modeling. Jinshi is now a Post-doc at PNNL. Adam Devlin, Undergraduate Researcher: worked with the lab during Spring 2022 on biopolymer degradation and now is doing his MS in soil salinity. Carmen Curry, Undergraduate Researcher: worked with the lab during Spring 2022 on biopolymer degradation. Ben Kunkle, Undergraduate Researcher: worked with the lab during Spring 2023 on biopolymer degradation and graduated in May 2023. Natsumi Shimoda, Undergraduate Researcher: worked with the lab during Spring 2023 on biopolymer degradation and graduated in May 2023. Morgan Harvey, Undergraduate Researcher: worked with the lab during Summer 2022 on biopolymer degradation. Hunter Wolz, Undergraduate Researcher: Hunter worked with the lab during Spring 2018 on some GIS and water quality experiments. Jessica Lord, Undergraduate Researcher: She joined the lab in Summer 2016 and has contributed to a variety of projects, including a detailed land use map and helping out with the soil leaching experiments. Charles Aquilina, Undergraduate Researcher: Charles worked on delineating pond-sheds in cities in GIS. Tough stuff! Cameron Daniels, Undergraduate Researcher: Cameron put his GIS skills to work to perform a continental scale analysis of surface water. NSF StreamLab REU Team, Undergraduate Researchers: Carla, Nicole, and Erica investigated how and why people value surface water in cities. |
