Biography

Dr. Boot is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry, a Research Scientist in the Materials and Molecular Analysis Center in the Analytical Resource Core, an affiliate of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, and affiliate Faculty with the Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on ecosystem metabolomics, linking small molecule profiles with environmental drivers through their microbial communities to understand how global change factors influence ecosystem function. Her post-doctoral work was at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in microbial ecology, studying the responses of soil microorganisms to moisture stress in California grasslands and forests, and to freezing in arctic Alaska. Dr. Boot’s PhD is in Ocean Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied marine natural products elucidating the structures of novel molecules using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Dr. Boot’s undergraduate degree was in Ecology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.