People

We are a small group of dynamic scientists, and we love what we do. Get to know us here. 

Alina A. Corcoran

she/her/hers
Principal Investigator

I fell in love with phytoplankton at a young age, and have etched out a career as a phytoplankton ecologist ever since. I have been fortunate to have excellent mentors who fostered my curiosity and professional development. As a doctoral student, I quantified the effects of urban and wastewater runoff on phytoplankton community dynamics in the Southern California Bight. I then completed a postdoc at NMSU, where I first focused on cultivation ecology. I have since addressed questions in both natural systems (as the director of Florida’s Harmful Algal Bloom Program) as well as commercial-scale algae cultivation ponds (as a Staff Scientist/Site Manager at the Sapphire Energy Las Cruces Test Site). My research interests include algal community dynamics, predator-prey interactions, algal-bacterial associations, HABs, and cultivation management. I have bounced around with career moves and have landed back in Las Cruces, NM twice. For details, see my CV. 

Current Laboratory Members

Stephanie Getto

she/her/hers
PhD student

I graduated from Delaware Valley University in 2015 with degrees in English literature and equine science. After a few years working in special education as a paraprofessional, I decided to return to school, and earned an A.S. in general biology. I then went on to earn my M.S. in biology, with a focus on ecology and evolution, from Montclair State University in 2020. There, I studied harmful cyanobacterial blooms in local freshwater systems, with a specific focus on how bloom dynamics may affect disease distribution in freshwater turtles. I am now pursuing my doctorate with Dr. Corcoran at New Mexico State University, where I am focusing my research interests on predator-prey dynamics and algae-bacteria interactions within our artificial cultivation systems.

​Ahlem Jebali

she/her/hers
Postdoctoral Researcher

I am a biology engineer from the National Engineering School of Sfax in Tunisia. I have been working on microalgae since 2011. As a doctoral student, I optimized cultivation and production on domestic wastewater and seawater during a co-joint supervised thesis at University of Almeria, Spain. Afterwards, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia and Paris Descartes University, France. My work focused on cultivation of microalgae in olive mill wastewater, as well as biomass extraction, fractionation, and analysis. In the Corcoran Lab, I work on microalgae-bacteria interactions and to quantify trait drift and evolution in lab and field cultivars of an industrial isolate of Nannochloropsis oceanica. I have contributed new experimental approaches to the lab. 
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Heather Martinez

she/her/hers
Field & Laboratory Technician

I am currently working as a lead technician and laboratory manager. I initially set up the Corcoran Lab at NMSU and now manage processes in the lab and at the outdoor cultivation site. My day-to -day duties include sampling, pond cultivation, sample analysis, instrument maintenance, data curation, and data visualization. I like working independently and as part of a team, and I love crossing items off my to-do list. Prior to holding this position, I worked as a Fuel Chemist processing samples from around the state of New Mexico for quality. I also worked at Sapphire Energy on their Production and Analytical Teams between 2012 and 2017. 
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Previous Laboratory Members

Gurpreet Nagi, Visiting Student (2023) 

Rakib Rashel,  Postdoctoral Researcher (2020-2021), currently at Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing, Columbia, Missouri 

​Shovon Mandal, Postdoctoral Researcher (2019-2020), currently at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, India

Kayley You Mak, Junior Research Scientist (2019-2020), currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Nathan Garcia, Postdoctoral Researcher (2018-2019), currently at University of California Irvine (UCI)