University of Southern California (USC) Los Angeles, CA
Marine and Environmental Biology Program (MEB) 8/2019-4/2024
Doctor of Philosophy Student
University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) Cambridge, MD
Marine Estuarine Environmental Science Program (MEES) 8/2017-8/2019
Master of Science
Lafayette College Easton, PA
Biology 8/2013-5/2017
Bachelor of Science, Honors
University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA
Graduate Research Assistant; 8/2019-Present
Project: Using molecular and statistical tools to investigate the effects that environmental shifts have on the composition, metabolism, and biotic associations of marine protist communities
- Published a statistical software package in R to carry out ecological network analyses with time-series species abundance data.
- Prepared metabarcoding libraries and used bioinformatic pipelines to create 16S and 18S amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) and operational taxonomic units (OTUs).
- Created and visualized ecological networks of microbes using time-series metabarcoding data.
- Extracted and purified RNA from seawater for metatranscriptomic library preparation and sequencing.
- Bioinformatically processed, analyzed, and visualized metatranscriptomic datasets using bash (Unix shell), R, and python.
Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge, MD
Graduate Research Assistant; 8/2017-8/2019
Project: Prevalence, succession and potential for recovery of diatom communities in the Anacostia River, Chesapeake Bay
- Conducted nitrate reductase enzyme analyses to determine rates of nitrate assimilation by phytoplankton.
- Used pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry to quantify phytoplankton photosynthetic efficiency.
- Used flow cytometry and light microscopy to quantify phytoplankton abundances in field samples.
- Cultured phytoplankton using batch culture techniques.
- Worked closely with NOAA Sea Grant (governmental organization) and Riverkeeper (non-governmental organization) to
assess the effectiveness of a newly-implemented sewage and stormwater management system in reducing pollution in the Anacostia River, Washington D.C.
Gleich S.J., Hu S.K., Krinos A.I., and Caron D.A. In press. Protistan community composition and metabolism in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre: Influences of mesoscale eddies and depth. Environmental Microbiology.
Rothenberger M.B., Gleich S.J., and Flint E. 2023. The underappreciated role of biotic factors in controlling the bloom ecology of potentially harmful microalgae in the Hudson-Raritan Bay. Harmful Algae. 124: 102411.
Gleich S.J., Cram J.A., Weissman J.L., and Caron D.A. 2022. NetGAM: Using generalized additive models to improve the predictive power of ecological network analyses constructed using time-series data. ISME Communications. 2(1): 1-9.
Gleich S.J., Plough L.V., and Glibert P.M. 2020. Photosynthetic efficiency and nutrient physiology of the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana at three growth temperatures. Marine Biology. 167(9): 1-13.
- University of Southern California Graduate Student Poster Contest Winner (2022)
- University of Southern California Outstanding TA Award (2019)
- Maryland Sea Grant Fellowship (2018-2019)
- Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) Research Grant (2018)
- Izaak Walton League Research Grant (2018)
- Explorers Club Washington Group Exploration and Field Research Grant (2018)
- Invitation to visit Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research; Yantai, China (2017)
- Travel award to attend Summer Oomycete Bioinformatics Training Workshop at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (2015)
- Gave weekly lectures on cell biology and organismal physiology.
- Provided feedback on homework assignments, laboratory reports, and exams.
- Worked with biology lab coordinators to improve online learning methods for students.
- Held weekly office hours for student help/support.
- Gave weekly lectures on evolution, ecology, and microbiology.
- Helped students carry out in-class laboratory exercises.
- Provided feedback on homework assignments, laboratory reports, and exams.
- Held weekly office hours for student help/support.
- Helped students with course concepts and MATLAB skills.
- Edited code for students.
- Led a weekly homework review session.
- Provided feedback on weekly homework assignments.
Lecture Title: Phytoplankton and Harmful Algal Bloom Ecology
- Prepared laboratory materials used by students in Phytopathology and Molecular Genetics classes.
- Worked with professors to test out laboratory experiments prior to class periods.
- Helped students carry out laboratory exercises during the laboratory class period.
- R statistical software/RStudio
- Python (numpy, pandas, matplotlib, scikit-learn, seaborn, flask)
- MATLAB
- Knowledge in statistics
- Knowledge in machine learning
- Knowledge in network theory
- Bash (Unix shell)
- Bioinformatics (16S/18S amplicon analysis; RNA-Seq analysis)
- GitHub and Git source code version control
- High-performance computing
- Science writing, reviewing, and communication
- MS Office