Carolina Martinez Gutierrez

Carolina Martinez Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). She leads the Early Life and Microbial Evolution (ELME) Lab, established in July 2024, which focuses on unraveling the evolutionary processes shaping microbial diversity. Her research integrates computational genomics, phylogenomics, and experimental microbiology to study microbial evolution across geological timescales. Carolina holds a BSc in Marine Biology from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, an MSc in Biotechnology from the Northwestern Center of Biological Research, and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Virginia Tech. She completed a Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at North Carolina State University before joining UCSB.

Her work emphasizes three core areas: (1) developing computational tools for analyzing large genomic datasets to trace evolutionary trends, (2) recovering genomes of novel microbial groups to study their evolution, and (3) cultivating microbes to understand physiological adaptations. Recent research highlights include studies on genome rearrangements in microbes, the virosphere’s role in host evolution, and the evolutionary links between microbial diversification and geological events. Carolina has advised graduate student Yifan Zhu and collaborates with postdoc Ivan Moreno on Cyanobacterial evolution.

Publications from her lab (2018–2024) focus on microbial genomics, viral-host interactions, and evolutionary dynamics. Notable contributions include analyzing genome size evolution in bacteria/archaea and exploring metabolic pathways in giant viruses. The ELME Lab actively engages in interdisciplinary research, combining fieldwork, lab experiments, and computational modeling to address fundamental questions in microbial evolution and biogeochemistry.