Vanessa Bailey
Expertise
Vanessa Bailey's research interests focus on the structure and function of microbial communities in terrestrial ecosystems. This has applications to enhancing agricultural land productivity, contaminant remediation, and forest management. Her main interest is in how the microbial ecology of soils affects C sequestering systems and how the microorganisms may be manipulated to enhance C sequestration, thereby offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Other research examines the transformation of plutonium by metal-reducing organisms. Dr. Bailey uses a variety of techniques ranging from classical chemical soil analyses, stable- and radioisotope labeling, to novel (in soil) molecular biology approaches.
Dr. Bailey's background is in the bioremediation of contaminated soils and she has worked on various projects in which the target contaminants have been petroleum, creosote, cadmium, and phosphate.
Education
- Ph.D., Soil Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1999
- B.S.A., Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 1994