Jennifer F. Biddle

Early life and education Biddle was an undergraduate student at Rutgers University, where she studied biotechnology. She was a doctoral researcher at Pennsylvania State University, where she studied microbial populations in sub-seafloor marine environments with Jean Brenchley.

Research and career Biddle joined the Department of Geosciences, then moved to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a postdoctoral researcher in 2007, supported by the NASA postdoctoral program. Biddle is interested in the microbial ecology of subsurface environments. Her early research made use of deep sea drilling to identify organisms in the ocean floor. She used genomic analysis to identify microbes in sediment collected 500 feet below the ocean floor during the International Ocean Discovery Program in 2002.

Biddle also investigated the organisms in deep lakes in the Canadian Rockies. She studied Pavilion Lake through genomic analysis of a series of samples collected at different depths. Working with ExxonMobil, Biddle demonstrated that microbial communities found in deeper seafloor sediments in and around sites of hydrocarbon seepage had considerable available energy and high population turnover rates.

In 2010, Biddle was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Delaware.

Awards and honors 2013 International Ocean Drilling Program Distinguished Lecturer 2021 American Geophysical Union Joanne Simpson Medal 2023 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology

Selected publications