Julie Laroche

Dr. Julie Laroche is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University, Canada, and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Marine Microbial Genomics and Biogeochemistry. She obtained her BSc from McGill University and PhD from Dalhousie University, and has conducted research in New York and Germany before returning to Dalhousie in 2020. Her lab focuses on understanding marine microbiomes, microbial nitrogen fixation, and the impacts of climate change on ocean ecosystems.

Her research spans microbial community dynamics in the North Atlantic, Bedford Basin monitoring, fish and invertebrate microbiomes, and novel diazotroph characterization. Key areas include the role of microbes in biogeochemical cycles, particularly nitrogen fixation and iron limitation, as well as developing genomic and metagenomic tools for oceanographic studies. She teaches courses in Genetics and Molecular Biology (BIOL 2030) and Microbial Ecology (BIOL/MARI 3101).

Dr. Laroche has supervised numerous graduate students and postdocs, with recent publications on topics like pseudocobalamin dynamics, nitrogen fixation in diazotrophs, and ocean alkalinity enhancement impacts. Her lab actively collaborates on projects such as the North Atlantic Bloom Experiment and Bedford Basin time-series studies, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to marine microbial ecology.