- Laboratory for Global Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry
- School of Environmental Sciences
- University of East Anglia
- Norwich
- NR4 7TJ
- UK
PhD student
PhD - 'The Virtual Algea'
My project is entitled 'Co-evolution of the composition of the ocean and the organisms in it'. My work aims in building a model of interactions between an evolving community of algae and the elemental composition of their environment. Virtual algae for this model are based on what we know about modern seawater diatoms (which are one of the key players in the global biogeochemical cycles e.g. they are responsible for circa 40% of world's ocean organic carbon production - Nelson et al., 1995), and cyanobacteria (e.g. Prochlorococcus). At the moment I am investigating possible reasons why some of marine algae genomes are streamlined and others are not.I am supervised by Professor Tim Lenton. I am also advised by Dr Hywel Williams and Dr Thomas Mock.
Biography
I studied in Environmental Biology at University of Warsaw for both my B.Sc. and M.Sc. My speciality since then is fresh water ecology. Near the end of my undergraduate studies I became interested in hardcore theoretical ecology what lead me to simultaneous studies in biology and physics (Computational Methods of Physics, B.Sc. program). Well, studying physics took me a bit longer than I had initially planned... But in the mean time I have got my M.Sc. in ecology and I have been working part time as a junior research assistant (still dealing with fresh water zooplankton). Since October 2008 I am a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences, UEA.Contact
P.Bentkowski (AT) uea.ac.uk+44 (0) 1603 59 3324