Principal Investigator
Dan Colman, Ph.D.
I am an environmental microbiologist with a background in microbial ecology, geobiology, and environmental sciences. My research interests are in understanding how microbial populations interact with one another and their environments both now and throughout Earth history to understand the co-evolution of microbial life and ecosystems, while enabling prediction of microbe-environment responses to ecosystem changes. To address these fundamentally interdisciplinary interests, I employ a whole-ecosystem level approach to studies and incorporate expertise at the intersections of environmental microbiology, geomicrobiology, microbial physiology, geochemistry, biogeochemical cycling, hydrology, genomics, and evolution. My research is intrinsically interdisciplinary and collaborative and the broad applicability of my approach is evident in the range of environments that my research has focused on, including hydrothermal, subsurface, host-microbiome, cold polar desert, and soil systems, in addition to the evolution of taxa and/or microbial functions relevant to global biogeochemical cycling, among other topics and environments. When I’m not in the field or lab, you can find me hiking in the mountains or in the rivers of southwestern Montana.
Graduate/Undergraduate Students
If you’re interested in working in the Colman lab, click here to contact Dan Colman
Gracie Knudson, Undergraduate Intern
I am currently a senior at Montana State University studying Biological Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. My research interests lie in environmental microbiology, with a particular focus on microbial communities in hydrothermal systems. As part of my research, I work with environmental samples collected from hydrothermal environments in Tibet and Yellowstone National Park. I use molecular biology techniques to investigate the diversity and function of microorganisms inhabiting these unique ecosystems. When I’m not in class or the lab, you can usually find me running in the mountains or spending time with a good book!
Assistant Professors of Zoomology
Rio, Colman House
Colman laboratory at montana state university 