Noah Fierer

Noah Fierer is a Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is also a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and directs the Center for Microbial Exploration. His research focuses on microbial ecology, environmental microbiology, and soil biology, exploring microbial roles in ecosystems, plants, and human environments. Fierer holds a B.A. from Oberlin College (1995) and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2003). He teaches courses on soil ecology, microbial ecology methods, and microbiology.

Research Interests: Fierer’s work spans microbial diversity in soil, built environments, and extreme ecosystems. His lab investigates microbial contributions to ecosystem processes, including carbon cycling, biogeochemical transformations, and human health. Ongoing projects include global soil microbial surveys, microbial community dynamics, and the implications of microbial diversity for environmental health.

Recent Highlights: Notable achievements include global soil bacterial atlases, studies on showerhead biofilms, and advancements in understanding relic DNA impacts on microbial diversity estimates. His work bridges basic science with applied challenges like carbon sequestration and microbial forensics.

Awards:

• Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award (2017)
• Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Research (2013)

Grants & Teams: Fierer leads collaborative projects on Antarctic soil microbiology, microbial weathering of silicates, and urban microbial ecology. His lab collaborates widely, involving graduate and undergraduate students in field and lab-based research. Projects often integrate genomic, geochemical, and ecological approaches to address environmental questions.

Labs & Centers: Fierer’s lab is part of CIRES and the Center for Microbial Exploration, emphasizing interdisciplinary research to advance microbial science’s frontiers.