Jeongdae Im

My research focuses on understanding and harnessing microbial processes that control the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and environmental contaminants. I am particularly interested in connecting microbial physiology and molecular mechanisms with biogeochemical processes at environmentally relevant scales.

Current research areas include:

1. Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions: microbial mechanisms controlling nitrous oxide and methane emissions from agricultural systems and development of practical mitigation strategies.
2. Biological nitrification inhibition: mechanisms by which plant-derived nitrification inhibitors affect ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms, rhizosphere microbial communities, nitrogen transformations, and greenhouse gas cycling.
3. Coupled carbon and nitrogen cycling: interactions among nitrification, denitrification, and methane oxidation, with particular emphasis on how perturbations to one microbial process produce consequences for other greenhouse gas sources and sinks.
4. Plant–microbe interactions: effects of plant traits and root-derived compounds on microbial functions relevant to nitrogen retention, methane oxidation, greenhouse gas emissions, and agricultural sustainability.
5. Environmental biotechnology and microbial ecology: application of microbial physiology, molecular biology, multi-omics, and biogeochemical measurements to understand and engineer environmentally important microbial processes.
6. Environmental contaminants: microbial and biologically mediated transformations governing the fate and remediation of organic contaminants in natural and engineered environments.