Katherine McMahon

Katherine (Trina) McMahon is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, affiliated with the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on microbial ecology, environmental genomics, and biogeochemical cycling in freshwater ecosystems. She leads the McMahon Lab (http://mcmahonlab.wisc.edu/), which investigates microbial community dynamics over long timescales, including viral interactions, nitrogen fixation, and mercury methylation.

• BS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• MS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne
• PhD, University of California at Berkeley

McMahon's recent work explores evolutionary trade-offs in nitrogen fixation, sulfate-driven methylmercury formation, and viral ecology in lakes like Trout Bog and Mendota. Her lab employs metagenomics and time-series analysis to unravel microbial and viral adaptations to environmental stressors. Despite no explicit awards listed, her leadership in microbial observatories (e.g., Lake Mendota Microbial Observatory) underscores her impact.