LAB MEMBERS
Randie Bundy
Randie is the Principle Investigator (PI) in the lab. She has an undergraduate background in Earth Science and Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. She loved San Diego so much that she decided to stay for her PhD, which she obtained in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. She then completed a postdoctoral research position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA before moving to the University of Washington.
Fun facts: Randie is from El Segundo, CA, a small suburb of Los Angeles. She loves surfing, hiking, camping, running, swimming, reading, drinking coffee, and listening to music. She also has a new hobby of sampling different donuts around Seattle!
Current Lab Members
Jiwoon Park
Jiwoon is a third year chemical oceanography graduate student. She studied earth science and chemistry in Columbia University before coming to University of Washington. She is interested in how iron-binding organic ligands in the ocean control iron bioavailability for marine phytoplankton, and is currently working on identifying and evaluating the distributions of organic ligands. She enjoys taking a walk, visiting farmers' markets and playing the keyboard in her free time.
Laura Moore
Colleen Hoffman
Colleen is a JISAO Postdoctoral Fellow working in the Bundy lab. Her undergraduate degree was in Chemistry from the University of Southern California, where she worked for two years a technician before going to going to graduate school in MN. It was there she became increasingly interested in iron, carbon, and their role in biological uptake and nutrient cycling in the ocean. After college, she decided to turn her love of chemistry, iron, and the ocean into a career. She recently received her PhD in Earth Science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she focused on the investigating the speciation, relationship, and potential geochemical implications of particulate iron and particulate organic carbon within a ~4300km non-buoyant hydrothermal plume in the Southern East Pacific Rise. In her postdoc, she hopes to continue to explore the biogeochemical relationships of iron and carbon in different ocean environments. In her free time, Colleen loves to SCUBA dive, hike, take nature photos, and kayak. She also loves to find any excuse to get down to the beach and listen to the ocean waves crash along the shore; a passion she developed having grown up in Redondo Beach, CA.
Katherine Heal
Katherine is a Simons Foundation postdoc working in the Bundy and Ingalls labs. She went to Colorado College for her undergrad and the University of Washington for her Masters and PhD (graduated 2018). All day long Katherine thinks about microbes, what they do, what they eat, and what they want. Katherine uses advanced mass spectrometry skills to measure small molecules (including metal-bound compounds) in order to "see" the biochemical workings of marine microbes. In her spare time, Katherine is usually found on her bicycle.
Angel Ruacho
Angel is a Postdoctoral researcher working in the Bundy lab. As an undergrad at UC Irvine he majored in Earth and Environmental Sciences and conducted research in biogeochemical modelling. As an undergrad he spent a summer conducting research at Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences as part of their REU program. During his REU he conducted experiments to study iron and iron-binding ligand regeneration from copepods grazing on diatoms, utilizing electrochemical methods to characterize iron-binding ligands and to determine iron concentrations. The analytical techniques he learned during his REU were put to use as a PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. As a student at SIO his work focused on characterizing copper-binding ligands utilizing electrochemical techniques with the bulk of his work focused on samples from the 2013 U.S. GEOTRACES Pacific cruise. He also applied these techniques to study copper-binding ligands in the California Current as part of the California Current Ecosystem LTER program and to evaluate San Diego Bay for sites experiencing copper toxicity. As a student at SIO he also developed an interest into iron supply into the CCE-LTER study region, for which he led two student cruises as Chief Scientist to study the benthic boundary layer along the coast of California to evaluate likely regions of iron supply. This work has been incorporated as part of the larger CCE-LTER program. As a postdoc Angel will continue to work on characterizing metal binding ligands utilizing mass spectrometry revealing more details about the ligands than can be gathered with electrochemical techniques alone. He is also interested in the role bacteria play with regards to iron binding ligands and have a continued interest in studying coastal and urban sites that may be experiencing copper toxicity.
Travis Mellett
Travis is a postdoctoral researcher in the Bundy Lab. He attended UC Santa Cruz where he majored in Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies, and went on to get his PhD at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. His work focused on the cycling of trace element nutrients in a variety of marine environments including the California Current, the Gulf of Mexico, and hydrothermal plumes along the Mid Atlantic Ridge. A particular emphasis of his work was investigating how the cycling of trace metals is impacted by their interaction with naturally occurring organic molecules referred to as ligands. His work in the Bundy Lab is focused on how trace metal requirements of marine bacteria could impact their ability to digest organic material raining down from the surface ocean and impact factors like the residence time of carbon in the ocean.
Affliated Lab Members
Tom Holmes
Tom is a postdoctoral fellow working with John Crusius (USGS) in collaboration with the Bundy Lab. He completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 2018, where his doctoral research focused on tracing sources of dissolved iron in the Southern Ocean, particularly from hydrothermal and volcanic island sources, and assessing the impact of these sources on regional nutrient cycling. Tom is now tracing dust inputs from Alaskan glacial valleys into the Gulf of Alaska, a potentially important episodic source of micronutrients for phytoplankton in this region. Tom has been trying to make the most of his Seattle experience by growing a beard, wearing a flannel, riding around town on a single speed bike and sampling as many different microbrews as possible.
Laramie Jensen
Laramie is a postdoctoral fellow through CICOES appointed within the School of Oceanography and the Applied Physics Laboratory. She recently graduated with her PhD in Oceanography from Texas A&M University (2020) and moved to Seattle to continue her work on Arctic trace metal chemistry. Her previous work looked at the distribution of dissolved, bioactive trace metals collected through the international GEOTRACES program with the goal of building a baseline of trace metal measurements in the central Arctic basins. In the course of this work she became interested in the rapidly changing circulation dynamics of the Arctic Ocean and now hopes to apply her tracer work to augment our understanding of water mass origin and circulation. Her current goals are a combination of synthesizing historical data, measuring available samples, and planning future fieldwork to her “dream” study sites. While she has migrated to a more physical approach her feet are still firmly planted in the world of chemical oceanography and trace metal dynamics with the help of the Bundy Lab.
Previous Lab Members
Noah Gluschankoff
Noah was a technician working in the Bundy Lab. He recently completed his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he participated in a wide range of research projects from marine bio-optics and hydrothermal vent chemistry to coastal carbon cycling and sustainable aquaculture practices. When not at work, you can find him at the climbing gym or exploring Seattle’s breweries and coffee shops. Noah is now pursuing a graduate degree at Stanford with Dr. Karen Casciotti. His unique upbringing in an agricultural family and countless hours spent playing along the California coastline has allowed him to appreciate the natural world in ways he hopes can instill in future ambassadors to the environment.