I am a microbiologist who explores the microscopic unknown.
I've always been interested in understanding how living things work. I got hooked on microscopic life when I had the opportunity to volunteer in a microbiology lab at Oklahoma State University in high school. There, I watched, amazed, as a simple drop of bacteria in solution turned into a plate full of colonies, with thousands of individual cells, overnight!
During my undergraduate at Geneva College, I conducted microbiological research with Dr. David Essig. Under his tutelage, I learned how to conduct independent research projects, design scientific questions and experiments, analyze data, solve problems, and understand how my Christian faith impacts my research. In graduate school at Oregon State University, I studied in the lab of Dr. Steve Giovannoni, where I learned how to work with challenging microorganisms, persevere in the face of difficulties, and work on a team.
Currently, in my work as a postdoc at the University of Waikato, I'm taking my culturing skills to new and unexplored depths, studying subsurface microbes that inhabit Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano in the world. Our multidisciplinary project, with collaborators across New Zealand and both sides of the US, is seeking to discover new microbes and metabolisms in one of the most extreme environments in the world. Our field work will require braving the fierce environment of the Mt. Erebus summit to drill at multiple sites. We will be using cutting-edge and tried-and-true culturing techniques to culture the microbes living there.
Work experience
August 2021 - Present
University of Waikato, Thermophile Research Unit
Postdoctoral Fellow
September 2015 - March 2021
Oregon State University
Graduate Research Assistant
Fall 2016, Winter 2017, and Fall 2017
Oregon State University
Graduate Teaching Assistant
May 2013 - May 2014
Geneva College
Summer Research Fellowship and Follow-up
2012 - 2014
Geneva College
Tutoring for Statistics, Introductory Chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1 & 2
May - August 2011 & 2012
Oklahoma State University
Lab Assistant, Soil Chemistry Lab
Education
August 2015 - March 2021
Ph.D. from Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA
Major: Molecular & Cellular Biology
Advisor: Dr. Stephen Giovannoni
August 2011 - May 2015
B.S. from Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA, USA
Major: Biology, Concentration in Cell & Molecular Biology
Minors: Chemistry and Music
Undergraduate Research Advisor: Dr. David Essig
July - November 2014
Semester Abroad at Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, AUS
Presentations
November 2020
OSU Microbiology Department Seminar
Noell, S.E., Hellweger, F.L., Giovannoni, S.J.: “Low Nutrient Concentrations in the Open Ocean Limit the Functioning of Regulatory Systems in Marine Heterotrophic Bacteria.”February 2020
Ocean Sciences Meeting 2020, Oral Presentation
Noell, S.E., Hellweger, F.L., Giovannoni, S.J.: “Induced Nutrient Assimilation in Oligotrophs: Not Beneficial, Not Possible, Both or Neither?”BIOS-SCOPE Workshop 2020, Oral Presentation
Noell, S.E., Hellweger, F.L., Giovannoni, S.J.: “Polyamine Metabolism in SAR11 & Transcriptional Regulation in Marine Bacteria.”February 2019
ASLO Conference 2019, Oral Presentation
Noell, S.E., Giovannoni, S.J.: “SAR11 Cells Have a Multifunctional and Extraordinarily High Affinity Glycine Betaine Transporter.”BIOS-SCOPE Workshop 2019, Oral Presentation
Noell, S.E., Giovannoni, S.J.: “SAR11 Cells Have a Multifunctional and Extraordinarily High Affinity Glycine Betaine Transporter.”Awards and Scholarships
May 2015
Valedictorian - Geneva College
May 2015J.L. McCartney Prize - Geneva College
2014
Alfred H. Nolle Scholarship - Alpha Chi
Fall 2013Academic Partners Research Project - Geneva College
Summer 2013
Summer Research Fellowship - Geneva College
2011 - 2015C.M. Lee Scholarship - Geneva College