Kyle Crocker
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow
RESEARCH:
Kyle Crocker’s research focuses on low-dimensional structure in natural microbial ecosystems. Despite the importance of these ecosystems for climate, health, and agriculture, the high diversity of their constituent microbial species makes their properties difficult to predict and control. To address this problem, Kyle will combine experimentation, ecological theory, and AI techniques to uncover the low-dimensional structure underlying these complex systems.
BIO:
Kyle joined Prof. Seppe Kuehn’s lab at the University of Chicago in 2021, initially studying the microbial interactions that drive global patterns in the composition of denitrifying microbial communities in the topsoil. Before this, Kyle received his Ph.D. in physics from the Ohio State University under the supervision of Prof. Ralf Bundschuh. During his Ph.D., Kyle used statistical physics techniques to model the properties of DNA-based systems, such as DNA origami and DNA mismatch repair. Prior to Ohio State, Kyle received his B.S. in physics from the University of Minnesota. At Minnesota, Kyle worked on gravitational wave detection with the LIGO group, advised by Prof. Vuk Mandic.