Dr. Malak Tfaily

Malak is an ecosystem scientist with a PhD degree in Analytical chemistry from Florida State University.  Her research aims to improve the understanding of carbon cycling in terrestrial and aquatic systems, the microbial-organic matter interactions that underlie it, and the controls upon it in dynamically changing systems. She uses a combination of modern and unique analytical molecular, geochemical and isotopic techniques to answer how, where and when organic matter formation and degradation takes place in different ecosystems. Malak’s research training focused on dissolved organic matter characterization during her PhD, soil organic matter characterization during her postdoctoral research, and recently  has advanced to the systems-level integration of detailed organic matter characterization with insights from molecular microbial ecology and plant biology, with the direct goal of distilling the findings of these syntheses for improved predictive modeling of ecosystem and global change.