Taylor Priest

An ecologist studying the diversity, ecology and evolution of microbes across Earth's biomes

For more information on my background or experience, feel free to send me an email.

Presentation of research

  • Poster: ISME19, Cape Town, South Africa
  • Poster: GRC Marine Microbes (2024), Switzerland.
  • Speaker: Tara Oceans Retreat (2024), Nice, France.
  • Invited speaker: PacBio Day (2022). Wageningen University, Wageningen,
    Netherlands.
  • Poster: ISME Conference Lausanne (2022), Switzerland.
  • Speaker: Polar Microbes Symposium (2022), Tvårminne, Finland.
  • Speaker: International Conference of Polar and Alpine Microbiology (2022). Postdam,
    Germany.
  • Invited speaker: Seminar at University of Oldenburg (2022). Oldenburg, Germany.
  • Invited speaker: Virtual PacBio day at EMBL (2022).
  • Invited speaker: PacBio Global Virtual User Meeting (2021).

Awards/Grants

  • NOMIS-ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship. July 2024-
  • FEMS Microbiology Ecology lecture prize. 9th International conference on polar and
    alpine microbiology, Potsdam, Germany, 2022
  • MARMIC teaching excellence award. International Max Planck Research School for
    Marine Microbiology. 2021 – 2022.

Other positions

  • Secretary of the SeqCode Reconciliation Committee (2023 – )
  • Organisation committee of the Tara Oceans Seminar Series (2024 – )

Research expeditions

  • PeCaBeau cruise: Research cruise from Resolute Bay to the Beaufort Shelf/Sea on the CCGS Amundsen, September – October 202.
  • MSM95 cruise: Research cruise to the eastern Fram Strait and Svalbard archipelago on the RV. Maria S. Merian in September 2020.
  • Herschel Island: Land-based expedition to Herschel Island, Yukon, Canada, August 2019.

Educational and professional training

July 2024 – ; NOMIS-ETH Postdoctoral Fellow
Sunagawa Lab, Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, &
Center for Origins and Prevalence of Life, ETH Zürich

July 2023 – June 2024; Postdoctoral researcher
Microbiome Research Lab, Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, ETH Zürich

December 2022 – July 2023; Postdoctoral researcher,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany.

April 2019 – September 2022; PhD in Marine Microbial Ecology,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Thesis title;
‘Molecular ecological characterization of high-latitude bacterioplankton’
Thesis supervisor: PD Dr. Bernhard M. Fuchs

  • Thesis supervised by PD. Dr. Bernhard M. Fuchs
  • Key techniques/skills from thesis; Metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, epifluorescence microscopy, extraction and quantification of carbohydrates, planning and executing research ship and land-based expeditions

October 2017 – March 2019; MSc Marine Microbiology
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Thesis title:
‘Investigating fungal community dynamics through a coastal spring algal bloom’
Thesis supervisors: PD Dr. Bernhard M. Fuchs & Dr. Marlis Reich

  • 14 theoretical and practical modules undertaken spanning from statistics and next-generation sequencing data analysis to ocean physics and eukaryotic microbiology
  • Major techniques/skills from thesis; project planning, epifluorescence microscopy, 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis

September 2014 – July 2017; BSc Marine Biology & Oceanography
Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK
Thesis title:
‘Chemotaxis of marine bacterioplankton to chitin and mycoplankton exudates’
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Michael Cunliffe