Erin Bertrand, PhD
Investigator
Erin M. Bertrand is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS Canada. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry and Environmental Studies from Bates College in 2005 and her PhD in Chemical Oceanography from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2012. She carried out postdoctoral research training at Scripps Inst. of Oceanography and the J. Craig Venter Institute before joining the faculty at Dalhousie in 2015. She joined CBIOMES as an investigator in July 2022.
Dr. Bertrand’s research is driven by her passion for connecting molecular-level processes with global-scale implications. Her overarching research aim is to use measurements of proteins and protein co-factors in ocean microbes to better understand how these organisms interact with ocean chemistry to underpin global biogeochemical cycles and food webs. Some of her most impactful contributions to date include (1) the first evidence for cobalamin limitation of ocean phytoplankton communities and the first molecular tools to track and trace this limitation, (2) the identification of protein markers to identify micronutrient co-limitation, and (3) the first cellular protein allocation models to leverage metaproteomic data to infer biogeochemical rates, quotas and other biogeochemical processes. Dr. Bertrand was a Simons Foundation Early Career Investigator in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution and is a Canada Research Chair in Marine Microbial Proteomics.