The School of Environmental Sciences [1] is pleased to welcome Jacqueline Goordial as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Microbiology. Goordial will begin in the role on June 15th, 2020.

Goordial will lead a comprehensive research program in environmental microbiology, while teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.

“Jacqueline is a rising star in environmental microbiology who brings a wealth of experience working in diverse environments to understand the impacts of climate change on ecosystems,” says Jon Warland, director of the School of Environmental Sciences. “We are very excited to welcome her.”

Goordial’s research focuses on how microbial activity, growth, dormancy, and death relate to diversity, evolution, and biogeochemical cycling in the environment. 

“I am excited to have the resources and the platform to pursue questions that I think are pressing right now,” says Goordial. “I'm hopeful that the work we do will be able to benefit communities and stakeholders at multiple levels.”

Goordial is particularly interested in understanding microbial response to environmental systems that are currently undergoing rapid change, like permafrost thaw in the Arctic and Antarctic. Her area of research is also highly relevant to the field of astrobiology, the study of life in the universe, because of the extreme environmental conditions of her study sites and the microorganisms that live there.

“I am looking forward to advising and working with student scientists; I have had many great mentors over my career so far, and I look forward to the rewarding scientific collaborations and relationships that will be built.”

Prior to joining the University of Guelph, Goordial was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University (2019-2020) and before that at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences since 2016. Goordial has a Ph.D. in environmental microbiology from McGill and an M.Sc. in molecular ecology from the University of Toronto. She has published 19 peer reviewed papers and chapters.