Meet Postdocs Helping Move EMSL Science Forward
Six researchers reflect on the expertise, career passions, and daily work they contribute to scientific discovery during National Postdoc Appreciation Week
Postdoctoral associates enhance their research experience, grow their professional networks, and build future career opportunities through their time at EMSL. (Photos by Maegan Murray, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and courtesy Sameera Nalin Venkat)
At the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), postdoctoral researchers help advance science forward by bringing new questions, specialized expertise, and fresh approaches to fundamental scientific research.
In EMSL's biological, environmental, and computational sciences, they design and conduct experiments, leverage and develop computational tools, analyze data, and share important findings. This daily work contributes to scientific discovery while helping shape where that work goes next.
Their contributions also strengthen the ways science gets done at EMSL. A method they refine can support more reliable measurements. A tool they develop can open new possibilities for analysis. The knowledge they share with colleagues can inform other investigations, extending the value of their work beyond a single project.
In recognition of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, six postdoctoral researchers talk about their contributions at EMSL and how their experiences have helped propel their scientific area:
Luke Fisher
Functional and Systems Biology Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
I recently joined EMSL as a postdoctoral researcher with a background in microbiology, where my work focuses on using laboratory automation and high-throughput approaches on the Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2) to study and engineer microorganisms. The broader goal of my research is to develop scalable ways to understand how genetic changes influence microbial traits and use that information to improve strains for applications in biotechnology and bioproduction. A major part of my work involves integrating automated cultivation and phenotyping with tools such as genome engineering, biosensors, and multiomics. Since I have only been at EMSL for about two months, I am still in the early stages of this work, but one of my current aims involves developing high-throughput approaches to characterize Pseudomonas putida strains and better understand the genetic regulation of traits relevant to critical mineral recovery.
What impact does your work have on society?
A major goal of this work is to make microbial research and engineering faster, more reproducible, and more scalable. By using automation and high-throughput approaches, we can evaluate biological conditions and strains in orders of magnitude more than would be practical using traditional laboratory methods. In my current work, we are interested in engineering microbes that could contribute to more efficient approaches for recovering critical minerals, which are important to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. These materials are increasingly important for technologies ranging from electronics to energy systems, so developing biological approaches that complement conventional extraction methods could have significant environmental and economic benefits. More broadly, the approaches we use can be applied to challenges ranging from the production of biofuels and sustainable aviation fuels to other valuable bioproducts, with impacts across many sectors of the economy and human health.
What excites you most about your research?
I am thrilled to be working on world-class platforms, such as the AMP2, to conduct my research. The idea of helping advance this system toward autonomous, closed-loop laboratory experimentation is incredibly compelling to me, and I am confident it will be a game changer for microbiology. I am also excited by the breadth of synthetic biology research and tools being developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and hope to contribute to these efforts as I continue my postdoctoral research. Just as importantly, I really value the opportunity to work as part of a strong interdisciplinary team, where people bring expertise spanning microbiology, automation, engineering, data science, and AI.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
The most meaningful part so far has been becoming part of such a talented and interdisciplinary team. I have really enjoyed working alongside scientists with a wide range of expertise and seeing how those different perspectives come together to tackle complex biological problems. The opportunity to learn from others while contributing my own expertise has been particularly rewarding.
How has your time as a postdoc helped you grow as a scientist or shaped what you hope to do next?
After only a short time here, I have already grown as a scientist by learning how to communicate across interdisciplinary teams and better understand the expertise, challenges, and bottlenecks that different people bring to a project. It has pushed me to think beyond the perspective of a microbiologist and consider problems through the lens of an engineer, chemist, automation scientist, mass spectrometry expert, and more. That experience has reinforced my interest in pursuing highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research to address big scientific questions.
Ashley Ives
Functional and Systems Biology Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
I do mass-spectrometry-based proteomics, which is generally the study of protein identity, abundance, and structure. It provides a catalog of what proteins are present in a sample, how abundant they are, and what state they are in. Proteins are the worker bees of the cell, and they do many of the functions that keep us alive, so a detailed catalog of a cell's protein state can reveal the functional status of a tissue, microbe, or organism. Thus, proteomics is relevant for human health applications or environmental studies for investigating microbes.
What excites you most about your research?
I love my work for many reasons. One reason is that the field of proteomics evolves rapidly. Companies and researchers are constantly developing new equipment, so we can ask better questions or analyze more samples by proteomics. A good example of this is the single cell proteomics revolution. Analyzing a single cell was essentially impossible or very limited around 10 years ago, and now it is possible and allows us to access a new suite of biological questions. Proteomics (and the people in the field) reject complacency.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
EMSL is a very special place. I was smart and good at my craft in graduate school, but at EMSL/PNNL I've grown beyond a hands-on, task-execution role and am learning about scientific decision-making. I'm slowly understanding that the future is not predetermined, and we all can decide what's important for the next chapter of humanity and how we get there. It's corny, but it's a mindset I did not have before, and it has made my work feel much more meaningful and spiritual for me.
I think PNNL specifically helped me achieve this because the people here are incredibly intelligent and kind and have always helped me when I asked.
What advice do you have for future postdocs?
I would advise new postdocs to:
- Ask for help from many places and do not be shy. Ask science questions, ask professional questions. Everyone is very kind, and there are many helpful perspectives.
- Learn new things and diversify (PNNL turned me into a Swiss Army knife). You don't want to become overextended and a jack of all trades, master of none, but being flexible and multifaceted is important for long-term success.
Sandy LaBonte
Environmental Transformations and Interactions Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
I investigate how plants and microbial communities interact with minerals—including both basalt and critical minerals such as rare earth elements—to understand the processes that drive nutrient release, mineral weathering, and broader biogeochemical transformations. These interactions are central to sustainable soil systems, emerging bioenergy strategies, and responsible approaches to mineral resource use.
To study these systems, I use EMSL's TerraForms platforms, including pore-scale microfluidic micromodels and Rhizoboxes, alongside chemical imaging and metabolomics workflows. These tools allow me to observe mineral–microbe interactions at fine spatial resolution, revealing how biological activity alters basalt and critical minerals over time. By integrating pore-scale experiments, imaging, and molecular-scale measurements, my work uncovers the mechanisms behind mineral breakdown and nutrient mobilization across diverse mineral types.
What impact does your work have on society?
Understanding how microbes and plants weather basalt and critical minerals is key to improving nutrient availability, strengthening soil health, and supporting long-term carbon stabilization. These natural processes help reduce reliance on chemical inputs, promote sustainable agriculture, and bolster bioenergy systems that depend on biologically active, resilient soils.
By uncovering the mechanisms that govern mineral breakdown and transformation, my research provides insights that can inform sustainable soil management, carbon cycling strategies, and environmentally responsible approaches to accessing essential mineral resources. This mechanistic understanding contributes to broader efforts aimed at enhancing ecosystem resilience and developing more sustainable pathways for both energy and mineral use.
What excites you most about your research?
I'm most excited by the opportunity to observe and understand how microbes interact with one another and actively transform the environments they inhabit. I've always been fascinated by the incredible chemistry microbes carry out and the profound ways those reactions influence the world around them. Being able to study these mechanisms spatially and at such high resolution is especially rewarding. I also love the collaborative nature of this work—partnering with scientists across different disciplines continually expands the scope and depth of what we're able to discover together.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
The most meaningful part of my EMSL experience has been working with such an outstanding and supportive group of scientists. Collaborating across different disciplines—each with its own expertise and perspective—has enriched my research and made every project more exciting and impactful. The sense of community and shared curiosity here has been one of the most memorable parts of my postdoc.
What advice do you have for future postdocs?
My advice for future postdocs is to take full advantage of EMSL's collaborative and highly multidisciplinary environment. The range of expertise—from microfluidics to spectroscopy to geochemistry—means there are endless opportunities to learn new techniques and gain new perspectives. Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone or join cross-cutting projects. These experiences not only accelerate professional growth but also deepen your appreciation for how interconnected biological and mineral systems truly are. Embrace the learning curve and follow your curiosity—it's one of the most rewarding parts of being a postdoc.
Abigail Moreno
Environmental Transformations and Interactions Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
My postdoctoral research at EMSL centers on mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) and metabolomics, with a focus on understanding the spatial distribution of metabolites in complex biological systems, and the development of new analytical capabilities, including a high-throughput mass spectrometry analysis platform for microbial metabolic screening.
What impact does your work have on society?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that's exactly what MSI does for scientists. MSI lets us identify and map hundreds of molecules in a single snapshot. By mapping out how compounds are distributed across a tissue, we can start to ask new questions, spot unexpected patterns, and draw conclusions that just wouldn't be possible if we were looking at everything mixed. Having this spatial context is crucial for discovering new compounds, deepening our understanding of processes like carbon cycling, inferring biological processes within tissue, and more. This knowledge doesn't just stay in the lab; it can influence decisions about bioenergy and other issues that impact people and society every day.
What excites you most about your research?
Every project is different. I like to engage with users and learn about their motivation for their research, understand how they want to contribute to society with their own research, and help them to complete interesting stories using imaging. Another very cool part of my research is that there is always room for improvement, whether it's making the analysis faster, achieving better spatial resolution, improving molecular coverage, or streamlining a workflow. There is always something new to add.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
The opportunity to interact with other scientists outside and inside PNNL. The collaborative and welcoming community at EMSL makes me feel included and that my contributions matter. Beyond the people, having access to world-class instrumentation is something that still amazes me. Working with state-of-the-art mass spectrometers and imaging platforms means I can push scientific questions further than I could anywhere else.
Do you have advice for future postdocs in your area or is there anything that you want to share about life as a postdoc that may not be well-known?
As a postdoc, it's easy to overlook the value of our knowledge and skills we've accumulated throughout our academic journey. Most of the time, we take these achievements for granted, and we should not. It is very important to acknowledge and appreciate what we have built over the years. Keep yourself open to learning, as learning is an ongoing process; it never ends. Keep a positive attitude, as even when things are not coming out as we expect, we learn from everything! Stay receptive to constructive feedback, seek for advice, ask questions. We cannot know everything, but we can always ask and learn.
Sameera Nalin Venkat
Computing, Analytics, and Modeling Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
My work with EMSL is broadly focused on multimodal image analysis using classical and AI/machine learning methods to understand the behavior of heterogeneous materials (such as soils). I work on various aspects of image analysis, such as processing raw images, co-registration, fusion, and segmentation.
What impact does your work have on society?
Scientific images generated from various instruments are not only fascinating to look at but also contain a wealth of information about the characteristics of the samples being studied. As there are multitudes of complementary imaging techniques, and based on the fact that images vary in resolution and scale, it's like fitting a jigsaw puzzle together to get a more complete understanding of the samples at hand. Making sense of these scientific images quantitatively can unravel insights that enable development of efficient processes, be it designing durable polymers or targeted extraction of minerals from soils.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
The most meaningful experience during my postdoctoral research experience has been interacting with amazing people working at EMSL, be it virtually or whenever I'm in person at Richland! I appreciate the time that people take to share their thoughts about research, networking, and work culture. I absolutely enjoy the virtual work sessions I have with some of my fellow EMSL researchers. We spend the first couple of minutes chatting about our lives, then define what we'd like to accomplish during the sessions, proceed to work on our goals for several hours, and discuss what worked/didn't work during our sessions at the very end. These consistent work sessions have led to really interesting conversations and have helped us finish challenging tasks together.
How has your time as a postdoc helped you grow as a scientist or shaped what you hope to do next?
Over the past year, I had the opportunity to expand my understanding of technical concepts, got exposed to new ways of thinking, and strengthened my interpersonal skills through my interactions with others. Seeking mentors and implementing their suggestions have been invaluable in my professional growth so far. Being remote, these various aspects have become even more important in expanding my network and learning about new opportunities within and beyond EMSL.
Do you have advice for future postdocs in your area or is there anything that you want to share about life as a postdoc that may not be well-known?
My advice is to be open to possibilities! With the ever-changing research landscape and priorities, it is more important than ever to be flexible in learning new skills and to foster interdisciplinary collaborations. Given that some days can be slow in research, it helps to have little rituals in place for such days. For me, creating an environment with minimal distractions and blocking time slots on your calendar for specific tasks have been particularly effective on my slow days.
Hasitha Wijesuriya
Environmental Transformations and Interactions Science Area
Can you summarize your research/work as a postdoc at EMSL?
My work sits at the intersection of computational science, x-ray computed tomography (XCT), and soil biogeochemistry. I primarily focus on developing automated and project specific workflows to analyze three-dimensional (3D) tomograms. For the Molecular Observation Network (MONet) initiative, this involves building pipelines for XCT soil core reconstruction, segmentation, pore network modeling, and fluid flow simulations using open-source packages like ASTRA toolkit, Tomopy, PoreSpy, and OpenPNM.
More recently, I have been expanding these automated and AI-driven approaches into structural biology. I am currently involved in building automated cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) reconstruction workflows. Day to day, my work involves heavily leveraging scientific computing, advanced computing clusters, and visualizing large 3D datasets.
What impact does your work have on society?
The work I do directly accelerates our understanding of critical environmental and biological systems. By automating the analysis of MONet datasets, we are unlocking the molecular and physical secrets of soil biogeochemistry much faster. This data is essential for accurately understanding carbon cycling, climate modeling, and developing sustainable agricultural practices.
On the structural biology side, applying agentic AI workflows to cryo-ET data removes one of the biggest bottlenecks in the field—the manual, time-consuming annotation of 3D cellular structures. Automating particle picking and segmentation allows biologists to understand cellular machinery and disease mechanisms at an unprecedented pace, ultimately accelerating biomedical discoveries and therapeutic developments.
What excites you most about your research?
I am most excited by the challenge of turning massive, raw tomographic datasets into intuitive, interactive, and physically meaningful models. There is something incredibly rewarding about designing complex machine learning models for segmentation into datasets or setting up agentic workflows and deploying it across computing clusters and finally seeing the nice 3D rendering that comes to life. Bridging the gap between raw hardware capabilities and accessible scientific visualization is what keeps me highly motivated.
What has been the most meaningful or memorable part of your postdoctoral experience at EMSL so far?
The most meaningful part has been the trajectory of my growth here and the mentorship that made it possible. I started my journey at EMSL in February 2025 to work on an XCT automation project. From the start, I was fortunate enough to get a supportive and visionary set of team members, and, since then, that project evolved into the first end-to-end data automation project at EMSL utilizing EMSL's own scientific computing resource, Tahoma. None of this would have been possible without the years of guidance and exposure to complex scientific software systems I had access to during my graduate studies. I would like to thank Tamas Varga at EMSL, and my former supervisors Nicholas Sitar at University of California Berkely and Dula Parkinson at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for providing me with those unique opportunities.
How has your time as a postdoc helped you grow as a scientist or shaped what you hope to do next?
My time at EMSL has fundamentally shifted my perspective from being a domain scientist who uses code, to a computational scientist who builds robust infrastructure for science. Wrangling massive datasets, managing GPU-accelerated jobs, and integrating modern AI architectures has shown me the immense power of advanced computing in scientific discovery. This realization directly shaped my next big career step to become a computational scientist in a Department of Energy national laboratory. My goal is to deepen my formal understanding of computer science to build even more sophisticated, automated analytical systems for complex scientific imaging systems.
Do you have advice for future postdocs in your area or is there anything that you want to share about life as a postdoc that may not be well-known?
First, treat software engineering as a core scientific skill, not just an afterthought. Taking the time to master core concepts like containerization, databases, and APIs will save you months of frustration when scaling your research on scientific computing clusters, especially if you are working with huge datasets regularly.
Finally, actively engage with your mentors and peers. The scientific and technical challenges at a national lab are massive, but the collaborative environment is unparalleled. The guidance you receive from senior researchers and your peers will shape not just your current project, but your entire career trajectory by opening new doors.