Dr. Julia Schwartzman

Biography

Julia Schwartzman is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2015, where she focused on marine bacteria and their roles as animal symbionts. Following her doctorate, she was a Ruth Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School, studying the evolutionary diversification of animal-associated bacteria, and then a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT. Her research at USC investigates how cellular-scale behaviors influence ecological dynamics in marine environments, particularly how microbial processes emerge from the interactions of cells, their neighbors, and their environment. Her interests include marine microbiology, microbial ecology, and host-microbe interactions, with a specific focus on decomposition processes in kelp and the dynamics of microbial communities.

Research Interests

Experience