Fatima Husain
Fatima Husain

MIT

Ph.D. Candidate in Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology at MIT | 2020 - present

  • GPA: 5.0/5.0

  • Co-Chair of the 2024 Organic Geochemistry Gordon Research Seminar

  • MIT Hugh Hampton Young Fellow

  • MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence

  • Discussion Leader at 2022 Organic Geochemistry Gordon Research Seminar

  • Teaching Assistant for Fall 2022 | 12.885: Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy

  • MIT EAPS John H. Carlson Fellow

  • MIT Presidential Fellow

  • MIT WISDM Fellow

  • Host and co-founder of BIOmarkers series archiving the oral history of organic geochemistry

Summons Lab for Geobiology and Astrobiology | 2018 - present

  • Projects:

    • Characterizing eukaryotic biomarkers from Antarctic meltwater ponds

    • Human gut microbiome lipid analysis by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry

    • Isotopic characterization of major cyanobacterial lipid biomarkers

    • Environmental reconstruction of Greenland Viking environments

    • Environmental reconstruction of early hominin environments at Olduvai Gorge

  • Specializes in lipid biomarker analysis of modern to 100 million years old+ sediments for paleoenvironmental reconstruction with GC-QQQ-MS, GC-MSD, GC-FID, LC-MS, and LC-QToF-MS

Fournier Lab for Molecular Phylogenomics and Microbial Evolution | 2020 - present

  • Projects:

    • The History of Aerobic Respiration

    • Evolutionary History of Cyanobacterial Lipids

  • Skills: BLAST database construction, amino acid alignment via ClustalX and MAFFT, maximum likelihood and Bayesian tree reconstruction, molecular clock estimates via Phylobayes, tree trimming via Treemmer, sequence analysis and automated redundancy reduction via Jalview

NASA Astrobiology/European Space Agency XVII International School of Astrobiology | 2019

  • 1 in 15 Americans selected to attend the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santander, Spain

  • Studied current topics in astrobiology research and the plausibility of metabolism-first hypothesis

Select Scientific Publications and Presentations | 2018 - present

Brown

Sc.B. in Geology - Chemistry with Honors | 2017

  • Voss Environmental Fellow | 2016-2017

  • Susan Pilch Friedman Award | 2017

  • President of the Department of Geology Undergraduate Student Group

Undergraduate Researcher for Huang Organic Geochemistry Lab | 2015 - 2017

  • Extracted lipid biomarkers from lacustrine sediment cores for paleolimnological research

  • Taught laboratory techniques to visiting researchers and new students

Undergraduate Researcher for Murray Environmental Chemistry Lab | 2016

  • Analyzed local water samples for bioactive metal contamination

  • Helped develop and test reductive precipitation technique to separate bioactive metals from saltwater matrices

Scientific Presentations | 2017 - 2018

  • High-resolution 10,000-year temperature reconstructions from Lake Fog2, northern Alaska | AGU December 2018

  • A multiproxy temperature reconstruction from northern Alaska | Brown U. May 2017

  • A 10,000 year record of Arctic temperature variability during the Holocene interred from lipid biomarkers in lacustrine sediments from northern Alaska (published abstract for poster) | GSA March 2017

Select Scientific Publications and Abstracts

Phillips, Alexandra A., Catherine R. Walsh, Korie A. Grayson, Camilla E. Penney, Fatima Husain, and Women Doing Science Team. "Diversifying Representations of Female Scientists on Social Media: A Case Study From the Women Doing Science Instagram." Social Media+ Society 8, no. 3 (2022): 20563051221113068.

Elling, Felix J., Thomas W. Evans, Vinitra Nathan, Jordon D. Hemingway, Jenan J. Kharbush, Barbara Bayer, Eva Spieck, Fatima Husain, Roger E. Summons, and Ann Pearson. "Marine and terrestrial nitrifying bacteria are sources of diverse bacteriohopanepolyols." Geobiology 20, no. 3 (2022): 399-420.

Sistiaga, Ainara, Fatima Husain, David Uribelarrea, David M. Martín-Perea, Troy Ferland, Katherine H. Freeman, Fernando Diez-Martín et al. "Microbial biomarkers reveal a hydrothermally active landscape at Olduvai Gorge at the dawn of the Acheulean, 1.7 Ma." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 40 (2020): 24720-24728.

Cui, Xingqian, Xiao-Lei Liu, Gaozhong Shen, Jian Ma, Fatima Husain, Donald Rocher, John E. Zumberge, Donald A. Bryant, and Roger E. Summons. "Niche expansion for phototrophic sulfur bacteria at the Proterozoic–Phanerozoic transition." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 30 (2020): 17599-17606.

Phillips, Alexandra Atlee, Brittany Ward, Korie Grayson, Grecia Lopez, Guannan Dong, Fatima Husain, and Circe Verba. "Communicating Science to the World from your Phone: Stories from the Women Doing Science Instagram." In AGU Fall Meeting 2019. AGU, 2019.

Sistiaga, Ainara, Fatima Husain, David Uribelarrea, David Martín-Perea, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Troy Ferland, Katherine H. Freeman et al. “Organic Geochemical Perspectives on Hydrothermalism at Olduvai Gorge, 1.7 Mya” In 29th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry. IMOG, 2019.

Sistiaga, Ainara, Fatima Husain, David Uribelarrea, David Martín-Perea, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, Troy Ferland, Katherine H. Freeman et al. "The role of tectonics and hydrothermalism in early human evolution at Olduvai Gorge." bioRxiv (2019): 632414.

Husain, Fatima, Gabriela Serrato Marks. “Learn Locally: Showcasing Local Scientific Research through Scientist-Science Writer Collaborations.” In AGU Fall Meeting 2018. AGU, 2018.

Husain, Fatima, William M Longo, William Daniels, James M Russell, Anne E Giblin, Yongsong Huang. “High-Resolution 10,000-year Temperature Reconstructions from Lake Fog2, Northern Alaska.” In AGU Fall Meeting 2018. AGU, 2018.

Husain, Fatima. "The Deepest Paradox: Seafloor Mining and its Future." Master’s diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018.

Husain, Fatima, William M Longo, William Daniels, James M Russell, Anne E Giblin, Yongsong Huang. “A 10,000 Year Record of Arctic Temperature Variability During the Holocene Inferred From Lipid Biomarkers in Lacustrine Sediments from Northern Alaska.” In GSA North-Central Section Meeting 2017. GSA, 2017.