People

Maria Dittrich, Full Professor

Maria Dittrich is internationally known for her research on mineral-bacteria interactions in a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic environments, including lake sediments. Her research approach combines several techniques in molecular microbiology, aqueous geochemistry and mineralogy. Priory to join the University of Toronto, she completed her Habilitation at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) and her PhD thesis at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology in Berlin, Germany. She is interested in the nucleation, precipitation and dissolution of biominerals under both laboratory conditions and in natural environments. She has trained 20 graduate students and is the author of 65 peer-reviewed publications and books chapters. 

Postdoctoral Fellows​

Dr. Khoren Avetisyan
Postdoctoral MITACS fellow
2021 - Present

My postdoctoral research is focused on understanding the biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus (P), methane (CH4) in lakes.

Dr. Atiyeh Ahmadi
2026 - Present

PhD Students​

Xiaoqing Shao
2020 - Present

My research focus is phosphorus retention in Lake sediments. I specifically study the role of microbes in vivianite formation. 

Nigarsan Kokilathasan
2021 - Present

My research is focused on understanding the impact of neoplastic on cyanobacteria.

Mahmud Hassan
2024 - Present

Benjamin Lei
2025 - Present

Ivan Strakhov
2020 - Present​

Casual Workers/Research Assistants

Lara Hopf
2026 - Present

Research Assistant
Casual worker

Dr. Yi Zhang
2026 - Present

My research focuses on phosphorus cycling in aquatic sediments, as well as nitrogen cycling in groundwater.

Undergraduate Students

Maeve McGuinness

Undergraduate
Center for Global Change Science
Summer Intern

Bishop Noseworthy-Ralph

Undergraduate
Volunteer

Abdullah

Undergraduate
Volunteer

Luca Stan

Undergraduate
Volunteer

Our Alumni

Dr. Basirath Raoof

Research associate
Research focused on anoxygenic phototrophs from Qatar's sabkhas.

Dr. Sara Zaferani

Postdoc
Research focused on phosphorus geo chemistry in marine systems.​
2023 - 2025

David Aceituno-Caicedo

PhD Student, research focused on microbial carbonate precipitation.
2019 -2025

Navdeep
Kaur Gill

undergrad
work-study student
2025

Dr. Zach DiLoreto

PhD
Postdoctoral MITACS fellow 2021-2024

Kajal


Master Student
2024

Natalie Cheung

undergrad
work-study student
2024

Yuwei Zhao

undergrad
work-study student
2023

Enqi Xiang

M.Sc. Student
2018 - 2022

Dr. Samrat Alam

Postdoctoral Researcher
2019 - 2022

Stefan Markovic


Postdoctoral Fellow
2015-2021

Dr. Diane Plouchart

Postdoctoral Researcher
2019 - 2021

Dr. Ammar Alibrahim

Graduate Student
2015 - 2020

Da Lin


Graduate Student Nanjing University
2018 - 2020

Rafael França de Mattos

2018 - 2020

Sanchit Garg

Undergraduate Student
2018 - 2020

Dr. Jiying Li


Postdoctoral Fellow
2016 - 2018

Dr. Maryam Tavafoghi Jahromi

postdoctoral fellow
2017-2018

Blandine Barthod

2017 - 2018

Tingting Zhu


Graduate Student
2011 - 2016

Carlos Paulo


Graduate Student
2011 - 2016

Anqi Liang



Undergraduate and Master Student
2011-2014