Julia Schwartzman is an Assistant Professor in the Marine and Environmental Biology Section of BISC. Julia received her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison studying how marine bacteria persist as animal symbionts. She subsequently trained as a Ruth Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School where she investigated the evolutionary diversification of animal-associated bacteria, and as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT where her work focused on the ecological consequences of collective behaviors in marine bacteria that decompose organic matter. At USC, Julia’s lab studies the how cellular-scale behaviors shape the ecological dynamics of marine environments.