Rate My Professor Sonya Dyhrman

Sonya Dyhrman is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She graduated with high honors in biology from Dartmouth College and received her Ph.D. in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She completed postdoctoral training at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she served as a tenured member of the scientific staff before joining Columbia. Dyhrman has participated in more than thirty research expeditions, including two to Antarctica, for which she received the Antarctic Service Medal. Her research uses molecular tools to examine the physiological ecology of cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae and their influence on marine ecosystem structure, function, and biogeochemistry. She teaches courses in microbiology, science communication, and climate and serves as co-director of an international training workshop in genomics. Dyhrman is an investigator with the Simons Foundation, a two-time Kavli Fellow in the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Program, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In addition to her research, she has developed ocean science literacy activities for classrooms and the virtual world Whyville, providing exposure to ocean literacy standards and scientific discovery to more than one million children.