Professor Cecile Gubry-Rangin

Biography

2016 - 2025 : Royal Society University Research Fellowship in evolutionary microbial ecology, University of Aberdeen 

2012 - 2015 : Early-career NERC Fellowship in evolutionary microbial ecology, University of Aberdeen

2009 - 2012 : Post-doctoral researcher in microbial ecology, University of Aberdeen, JI Prosser and GW Nicol group

2005 - 2008 : PhD student in bacterial population genetics, University of Montpellier (France), under the supervision of G Béna and JC Cleyet-Marel

Research Overview

My research is directed toward understanding ecological adaptation of microorganism populations.

My work interest is orientated on microbial diversity and ecological function for microbes playing fundamental processes in the global biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen. I am currently more focused on microorganisms (both archaea and bacteria) implicated in the ammonia oxidation process.

My fundamental aims are to determine the environmental factors controlling their community structure and diversity and to understand their physiological and evolutionary adaptation.

Current Research

More details about projects and people on my personal website: https://www.gubry-rangin.com/ 

Funding and Grants

Grants and fellowships (total funding to date: > £8M)

• NovoNordisk Foundation grant (£16M total; £1,400,000 for UoA) (UK PI) (PI: Victor Kommerell) (2025) ‘CropSustaiN BNI Wheat Mission’
• Plant CDT studentship (£90,000) (PI) (coI: Paul Hallett) (2025) ‘Contribution of biological nitrification inhibition to soil restoration’
• Quartiles studentship (£95,000) (PI) (coI: Lesley Lancaster, Chris Allen) (2025) ‘Importance of microbial thermal tolerance in the context of climate change’
• NERC-NSFGEO (£1M total; £526,000 for UoA) (coI) (PI: Paul Hallett) (2024) ‘Unraveling the formation and impact of the plastisphere in response to environmental stresses in microplastic contaminated soils’
• DEFRA (£1.2M total, £500,000 for UoA) (coI) (PI: Jo Smith) (2024) ‘CrossRoads: Cataloguing and Rating of Opportunities for Side-lined Species in Restoration of Agriculturally Degraded Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa’
• BBSRC Research grant (£1,800,000) (coI) (PI: Gareth Norton) (2024) ‘A Multi-level Exploration Of Biological Nitrification Inhibition In Rice For Improved Sustainability Of Crop Production’
• BBSRC 22ALERT (£810,000) (coI) (PI: Marcel Jaspars) (2023) ‘Analysis Of Biological Small Molecule Mixtures Using Multiple Modes Of Mass Spectrometric Fragmentation Coupled With New Bioinformatics Workflows’
• Royal Society URF enhanced grant (£200,000) (PI) (2023) ‘Role Of Dormancy In Microbial Biodiversity’
• BBSRC International grant (UoA) (£33,750) (coI) (PI: Justin Travis) (2022) ‘Resilience of plant-pollinator-microbiome networks to environmental change: implications for food and biodiversity security’
• Plant CDT studentship (£88,472) (PI) (coI: Michael Wilkinson, Tim George) (2022) ‘Mechanistic understanding of plant-microbe interaction to solve the nitrogen use efficiency dilemma’
• Plant CDT studentship (£88,472) (coI) (PI: Gareth Norton) (2022) ‘Maximising biological nitrification inhibition capacity of rice’
• SUPER DTP studentship (£88,472) (PI) (coI: Ashish Malik, Rebekka Artz, Peter Gilbert) (2022) ‘Impact of multiple climate stressors on microbial processes and carbon sequestration in peatlands’
• BBSRC International grant (UoA) (£47,046) (PI) (coI: Mohea Couturier, Eveline Peeters) (2022) ‘Solving the thaumarchaeotal cultivation puzzle via antibodies-based sorting’
• UKRI-GCRF Mitigation grant (UoA) (£23,434) (coI) (PI: Justin Travis) (2022) ‘Sharing knowledge and techniques with Indonesian researchers to enhance biodiversity security and ecosystem resilience for rural livelihoods’
• NERC Quadrat DTP studentship (£88,472) (coI) (PI: Julianne Megaw) (2022) ‘Profiling the global responses of archaea to diverse environmental influences’
• NovoNordisk Foundation grant (£5.3M total; £1,537,686 for UoA) (UK PI) (PI: Kristian Brandt) (2022) ‘Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BioNI): a novel high-throughput platform integrating wheat genetics, natural product chemistry and microbial ecology approaches to improve sustainable crop production’
• BBSRC EastBio DTP studentship (£88,472) (PI) (coI: Tim George, Marcel Jaspars) (2022) ‘Crop production sustainability through the microbial lens’
• NERC SUPER DTP studentship (NE/S007342/1) (£88,472) (PI) (coI: Theodore Henry) (2022) ‘The impact of environmental change on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbiotic sponge communities’
• ASU Environmental Transition (Sorbonne University Alliance) Studentship (£90,000) (coI) (PI: Jean-Christophe Lata) (2022) ‘Mechanisms underlying the biological inhibition of nitrification by grasses: a controlled environment approach’
• Royal Society Talent grant (RF/ERE/210076) (£170,000) (PI) (2021) ‘Physiological and evolutionary mechanisms of microbial transitional states’
• Royal Society University Research Fellowship renewal (URF/R/211039) (£351,000) (PI) (2021) ‘Evolutionary processes associated to archaeal environmental adaptation’
• Royal Society Enhancement grant (RGF\EA\201049) (£95,000) (PI) (2020) ‘Evolutionary origin of ammonia oxidation’
• Royal Society Enhancement grant (RGF\EA\180253) (£108,742) (PI) (2017) ‘Experimental evolution of Thaumarchaeota’
• University of Aberdeen / Elphinstone fund Postgraduate Scholarship (£126,840) (PI) (2017) ‘Solving the paradigm of acidic Thaumarchaeota’
• Royal Society Research Grant (RG160625) (£151, 219) (PI) (2017) ‘Unravelling the metabolic versatility and diversity of abundant but unexplored terrestrial Thaumarchaeota’
• NERC Directed grant (NE/S006923/1) (£509,113) (Co-I) (PI: Justin Travis) (2018) ‘Forecasting biodiversity losses in Wallacea from ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes’
• NERC standard grant (NE/R001529/1) (£649,774) (PI) (coI: Tom William) (2017) ‘Evolution of thaumarchaeotal metabolism under contrasting oxygen conditions’
• NERC Directed Grant (NE/K016342/1) (£261,000) (PI) (2016) ‘Biodiversity, ecosystem functions and policy across a tropical forest modification gradient’
• University of Aberdeen / Elphinstone fund Postgraduate Scholarship (£126,840) (PI) (2016) ‘Ecological implications of drought on the activity and abundance of AOA and AOB’
• Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF150571) (£627,733) (PI) (2016) ‘Adaptation in Thaumarchaeota: the interplay between ecology and evolution’
• NERC Standard grant (NE/L006286/1) (£488,224) (Co-I) (PI: James Prosser) (2014) ‘Soil ammonia oxidisers: an embarrassment of richness?’
• University of Aberdeen Postgraduate Scholarship (£80,000) (PI) (2013) ‘Ecological insights into unexplored archaea through single-cell genomics and cultivation’
• Early career NERC Independent Fellowship (NE/J019151/1) (£246,691) (PI) (2012) ‘Evolutionary adaptation in Archaea’
• NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility Application (2013): “Phylogenetic resolution and coherence in thaumarchaea”.  
• NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility Application (2013): “Evolutionary adaptation in archaea- community sequencing”.  
• MRT (French Research Ministry) Postgraduate Scholarship (2005-2008)
• European ERASMUS Traineeship Grant (2004)
• ESA (European Space Agency) Traineeship Grant (2003)

Teaching Responsibilities

Current Supervision

3 PhD students, 1 MSc student.

Teaching

Course co-coordinator:

• Meet the scientists

Lectures at undergraduate level:

• Ocean Biology
• Diversity of life