The Low-Hanging Fruit of Climate Actions: Challenges and Opportunities of Methane Mitigation

Featured Speaker: Professor Marina Kalyuzhnaya

Climate change poses significant risks to human health, including reductions in freshwater supplies and food. Global warming is driven by the emission of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2 and methane. The widespread and steady growth of anthropogenic interventions makes methane not only the major contributor to climate change but also the primary target for near-term climate regulation. Biological methane conversion is the primary mechanism that controls methane emissions in nature. However, the concept of using methane-utilizing microbes in human-made systems is just beginning to take shape. This research focuses on novel marketattractive climate actions aimed at embedding biological methane-capturing pathways into fossilfuel recovery and livestock industries to restore balance in agricultural soils.

Presenter Biography

Marina Kalyuzhnaya graduated with honors from the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Department of Microbiology, Ukraine. She has a PhD in Microbiology from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Center for Microbiology and Biotechnology. Since 2001 she has lived and worked in the United States. She is currently a Professor of Microbiology and primary investigator in the C1-biocatalysis laboratory in the Department of Biology at San Diego State University.

Coordinator: Marlene Rayner