Welcoming Visiting Student Jaz Millar

For the month of October, Cardiff University research student Jaz Millar will work in the Summons Lab to study the lipid profiles of microbial communities grown under Snowball Earth-like conditions.

In her research, Millar studies how life survived and maintained diversity during the Cryogenian period 720-635 million years ago. She investigates the potential of cryoconite holes as analogues for Snowball Earth environments that may have supported life. Before visiting MIT, Millar used DNA sequencing to identify microbial communities that are thought to share characteristics with Cryogenian life.

She hopes her research will lead to insights about the Snowball Earth ecosystem.