MIT EAPS Directory

Andrew Babbin and his bablab are oceanographers, biogeochemists, engineers, and microbial ecologists studying the interplay of chemistry and biology across spatial scales. They focus on the interactions of microorganisms with their chemical environment to understand climate and the impacts microbial communities have for marine biogeochemistry. They particularly investigate the cycling of marine nitrogen under reduced oxygen concentrations, and its relationship to carbon. Their approach is three-fold: (i) investigating biogeochemistry in situ through shipboard and land-based field work and analyses, (ii) designing and executing novel laboratory-based systems to probe the underlying fundamentals for microbial community growth and function, and (iii) using large datasets to investigate marine biogeochemistry through numerical simulation and modeling. They routinely consider how microscale processes occurring around individual bacteria and marine snow particles impact whole-ocean biogeochemistry, bridging microscopic life to global climate.

Babbin earned his BS degree (2008) from Columbia University and doctoral degree (2014) from Princeton University. He came to MIT in November 2014 as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Civil and Environmental Engineering before joining the EAPS faculty as of January 2017. His lab group conducts research across a variety of avenues, coupling observational oceanography with laboratory experiments to understand the chemical underpinnings that control microbes in the environment and how these microbes in turn reshape Earth’s climate.