Kathleen Scott

Contact Info

• Academic Email: kmscott@usf.edu
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Biography

Dr. Scott is an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology. She has an interest in the evolution and function of carbon cycling, particularly carbon fixation, in diverse environments, ranging from streams and surface oceans to the deep sea. Inorganic carbon uptake by the autotrophic microorganisms responsible for the input of organic carbon to food webs has not been well-characterized, despite its importance to ecosystem function. This is why her lab focuses on studying inorganic carbon uptake and fixation by autotrophic microorganisms with a range of physiologies and ecologies.Her group uses many different tools to examine autotroph physiology, including cultivation in chemostats, enzymology, proteomics, transcriptomics, genetic manipulation, and comparative genomics. In addition, she teaches a genomics course directed toward senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students to introduce them to databases and tools (e.g., query tools, alignment tools, beginning phylogenetic analyses) that can be used for genome-level analyses. Multiple publications with many undergraduate and graduate student coauthorships have resulted from these classes, and a third is underway.