Emily Cardarelli

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT EMILY CARDARELLI

I am a planetary scientist and subsurface geomicrobiologist who seeks to understand microbial life at soil-water interfaces in floodplains of the American West and subsurface geology of Mars in Jezero crater, Mars. I use my interdisciplinary background in molecular biology, geology, and earth system science in identifying how microbes and their mineral environment interact across space and through time. In my PhD within the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford, I broadly studied microorganisms in the environment and their roles within their communities. My dissertation research explored microbial diversity below the Earth’s surface and illuminated how ecosystem disturbances alter microbe-sediment interactions in river systems, with potential influences on water quality.Using remote and sample-based studies, my current research integrates microbial, geochemical, and geophysical techniques to illuminate subsurface organomineral interactions and martian regolith properties. I presently investigate water-rock interactions and the preservation potential of magnesium carbonates in Mars-analog environments and the Margin Unit of Jezero crater, in pursuit of identifying signs of ancient life on Mars.