Carly spent her childhood exploring the tide pools and mountains of the Pacific Northwest where her love of nature, especially the ocean, began. Following her time at the UW, Carly worked at biotechnology company for one year, and then continued on to a Master’s and Doctoral program with Dr. Adrian Marchetti at UNC at Chapel Hill. During her doctoral studies, she investigated the molecular physiology and ecology of polar diatoms from the Western Antarctic Peninsula, showing that polar diatoms have unique gene repertoires, compared to their temperate counterparts, allowing them to grow under the low iron and light levels common in Antarctic waters. In 2021, Carly joined Dr. Shady Amin’s lab where she is developing the use of a novel phytoplankton isolation and whole genome amplification protocol, with the goal of revealing previously undetectable new relationships between bacteria and their diatom hosts. Recently, Carly received a C-CoMP Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her work in Dr. Amin's lab. In her free time, Carly’s interests include exploring the outdoors, reading historical fiction, eating different cuisines and playing with her cats. Her life-long dream is doing ocean research in a Spanish speaking country.