Becky Bixby

Becky Bixby is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of New Mexico. As a freshwater phycologist, broad questions that interest Becky include: What species are found on this planet?, Why are species found where they are?, and How do species respond to environmental and biological stressors? These questions have driven her research program that utilizes diatoms as model organisms to ask broader questions about microbial biogeography and species responses to stressors. She utilizes cross-disciplinary methods including systematics, morphometrics, ecology, taxonomy, and univariate and multivariate statistics to address these questions. Her local projects include the human and natural impacts on diatom biodiversity and abundance in arid land rivers. She has a B.A. from Albion College (Michigan), M.S. from the University of Cincinnati, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.