Dr Marc-Andre Cormier

Marc-Andre is a Research Fellow studying Plankton Mixotrophy. Prior joining the department and Christ Church, he studied Marine Biology, Biochemistry and Political Sciences at Laval University (BSc), Oceanography at the Geotop Research Center (MSc), and completed a doctoral thesis at the Department of Environmental Systems Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich (Dr. sc.) as well as a PhD program bridging Sciences and Policy at the University of Zürich. His doctoral thesis in the Plant Physiological Ecology group looked at the biochemical and metabolic effects on hydrogen isotope composition of organic compounds in plants.

As postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ-Potsdam), he worked at the understanding the changes in aridity and precipitation patterns at the end of the last ice age across the European continent. Later, going back at ETH Zürich (this time at the Geological Institute),  he was in charge of the Coccolithophore Culture Laboratory and was looking at the imprint of carbon concentrating mechanisms in phytoplankton organic and inorganic geochemistry. Besides these extraordinary experiences, he visited several institutions, including laboratories at Durham University, the University of Plymouth and the French National Institute for Ocean Science (Ifremer).

In general, Marc-Andre works at extending our understanding of the roles of protists in the global Earth system; this constitute the core of his current research program. As a biogeochemist, he is fascinated by the interactions and feedbacks between the biosphere (including humankind and the issues of plastic & fossil fuel pollution) and the geosphere at different spatial and temporal scales in marine and terrestrial environments. The development of new tools such as those involving stable and radiogenic isotope measurements to investigate biogeochemical processes is fundamental to his research. As a political scientist, he is also fascinated by how political regimes module the influence of environmental scientists and of scientific data on the management of environmental issues.