My name is Isabel Baker, but you can call me Izzy. Welcome!

I recently received my PhD from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, doing scientific research under the guidance of Professor Peter Girguis. Shortly thereafter, I accepted a role as a federal Research Biologist in the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, where I worked on efforts related to bioremediation and bioelectricity. I’ve since moved on to the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where I am an Agouron Postdoctoral Fellow working in Professor Maya Gomes’ Comparative Geobiology Laboratory. I also work on an Air Force-funded project with Professor Jocelyne DiRuggiero in the Hopkins Biology Department.

You can find my CV here.

My research interests lay at the intersection of molecular biology, microbial physiology, and geochemistry. I find it amazing that life has been able to colonize almost every possible environment on Earth, no matter how uninhabitable some places may seem. I seek to improve our understanding of how microbes are able to completely conquer and transform these places; I am especially motivated by this in the context of life on early Earth, life in today's rapidly changing environments, and in the pursuit of finding life elsewhere in our solar system.