Smruthi Karthikeyan

Smruthi Karthikeyan is the Gordon and Carol Treweek Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and a William H. Hurt Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her research integrates microbial ecology, computational biology, and engineering to develop multi-omic approaches for understanding microbial communities. She focuses on translating microbiome data into biomarkers for environmental and human health, particularly through wastewater surveillance and soil microbiome dynamics.

Education:

• B.Tech, Anna University (Chennai), 2012
• M.S., Columbia University, 2014
• Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020

Research Interests: Dr. Karthikeyan's lab pioneers culture-independent techniques to study microbial dark matter, employing isotopic tracer-based mass spectrometry, meta-omics, and single-cell analysis. Key areas include:

• Linking microbial identity to function at cellular/spatial levels
• Soil carbon flux responses to drought
• Antibiotic resistance evolution in environmental contexts
• Rhizosphere microbiome interactions
• Gut microbiome dynamics under antibiotic exposure

Scientific Awards:

• Gordon and Carol Treweek Assistant Professorship (2023-)
• William H. Hurt Scholar (2023-)

Her work has established innovative wastewater surveillance frameworks for public health, including early detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants and campus-wide monitoring systems. She leads active projects on microbial community responses to environmental stressors and develops computational tools for microbiome analysis.