Prof. Neil Gray

• Professor of Geomicrobiology Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Newcastle University
• Email: neil.gray@ncl.ac.uk
• Oversee the microbiological components of CERBERUS and aid on experimental set-up/chemical analyses.

 ORCiD: 0000-0002-2395-4320

As a Geomicrobiologist I am fascinated by the interaction of microbes with their geochemical environments. It is clear to me that these interactions have far reaching effects on ecosystems, global processes and human societies. I am often struck by the relevance of microbial communities and their activities (which occur at relatively such small scales) to the larger scale environmental issues e.g. ecosystem damage and regeneration, climate change and its mitigation, soil productivity and health, water quality). This is of course because of the shear diversity and distribution of microbial processes. Compared to plants and animals microbes use a staggering range of metabolic paths to consume inorganic and organic substrates. New metabolisms are still being discovered and it is this richness which allows microbes to directly influence environments stretching from the deep biosphere to the upper atmosphere.