We are delighted to welcome Dr. Valerie De Anda as a Senior Research Fellow in the Microbial Oceanography Unit!
Valerie is an environmental microbial bioinformatician whose research focuses on understanding the evolution of microbial metabolism in extreme environments. Her work bridges data science and microbial ecology to uncover the metabolic principles governing microbial life across ecological and evolutionary scales. By developing computational algorithms and integrating multiple disciplines her research uses microbial metabolism as a framework to predict the past, present, and future outcomes of life on Earth and their implications in a changing environment.
She earned her Biology degree summa cum laude from UNAM (Mexico), completed an undergraduate stay at the University of Valencia (Spain), and conducted her thesis at UNAM’s Biotechnology Institute. She pursued her PhD at the Institute of Ecology UNAM Mexico, spending two years at EEAD-CSIC (Zaragoza, Spain) with Dr. Bruno Contreras-Moreira. In 2018, she joined the University of Texas at Austin (Baker Marine Microbial Ecology Lab) as a postdoctoral researcher, advancing to Research Scientist and Provost’s Early Career Fellow. In 2024, she became an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, where she established a research program on microbial metabolism in extreme environments.
At the University of Vienna, Valerie brings her established research program to the Microbial Oceanography Unit, where she will continue exploring how microorganisms shape—and respond to—environmental change through a combination of field exploration, computational modeling, and experimental validation.
Drawing from her own experience as an underrepresented scientist, she is deeply committed to creating equitable and inclusive spaces in science.
More info:
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/valdeanda/
GitHub: https://github.com/valdeanda
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9775-0737
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zTzvNWwAAAAJ&hl=es
We are thrilled to have her on board!