Research Interests and Accomplishments

Jeff McQuaid is a Staff Scientist in the Microbial and Environmental Genomics Group at the J. Craig Venter Institute. His primary research interests include the metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses of marine microbial communities, particularly with regards to the global cycling of carbon and nitrogen. Jeff McQuaid has been with the JCVI since June 2006, and has collected microbial environmental samples in diverse areas, ranging from Antarctica to mid-town Manhattan. Jeff McQuaid's scientific responsibilities include extracting and processing the nucleic acids and assisting in the analysis of the resulting data streams.

Jeff McQuaid received his BS in Biology from St Lawrence University in 1992, and an MS in Environmental Microbiology from the University of Arizona in 2000, and his academic career includes year-long academic exchanges at Moscow State University in Russia and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Jeff McQuaid was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow for 1992 — 94, where he studied the biological diversity of African and Siberian rift lakes.