|
|---|
My name is Lycely Sepulveda-Torres...
...but people call me “Cely” (se-lee). I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and trained as an industrial microbiologist at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez. Following my passion for environmental microbiology, I was accepted in the Department of Microbiology and the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, where I met Dr. Craig Criddle. As my Ph.D. mentors, Dr. Criddle and Dr. James Tiedje guided me through the fascinating worlds of bacterial genetics and bioremediation. During my Ph.D. work, I discovered the genes that allow Pseudomonas stutzeri strain KC to degrade carbon tetrachloride without the accumulation of toxic intermediates. Upon my graduation, I returned to Puerto Rico where I was an Assistant Professor at my Alma Mater and at Universidad Metropolitana. As a professor, I devoted a lot of time to three different areas. I was involved in undergraduate curriculum development in Biotechnology as well as Cell and Molecular Biology. I also conducted research in bacterial diversity/genomics with the aid of undergraduate students. Finally, I served as an academic counselor to dozens of students.
In July 2006, I moved to the Bay Area and joined the Criddle laboratory once again as a postdoctoral scholar. I took a leadership role in plans to set up a global bioreactor network for studying how microbial community structure might be linked to instability in nitrification, a key nutrient removal step in wastewater treatment and an important part of the global nitrogen cycle. Although nitrification has been used in water quality control for decades, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how the microbial community dynamics and the operational parameters affect the nitrification process. The network, when established and funded, will be using modern molecular biology techniques and multidimensional statistical tools to generate a clearer picture of how the nitrification process works in the waste water treatment plant bioreactors.
In October 2007 I moved with my family to southern California where I have taken a position with the University of California at Irvine as the Executive Associate Director for the Pacific Southwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Research. This is an NIH-funded initiative to increase basic, translational research, product development and biodefense readiness for the microbes listed in the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) priority list. Approximately 50 PIs from public and private institutions from CA, NV,AZ and HI are associated with the project.
