RESEARCH GROUP
Division of Microbial Ecology
Updated: September 2026
Contact
Group members
- Stefan Bertilsson
- Jennifer Anderson
- Rafael Cristovao Augusto
- Claudia Bergin
- Ana Cekol
- Lauren Davies
- Zahra Goodarzi
- Vesna Grujcic
- Charlotta Hagström
- Jay Håkansson
- Mariana Kluge
- Theresa Lumpi
- Maliheh Mehrshad
- Ton Nguyen
- Malin Olofsson
- Ricardo Parizotto Ribeiro
- Fernando Puente Sanchez
- Bella Safitri
- Manuela Seehauser
- Vinicius Silva Kavagutti
- Attila Szabó
- Anna Székely
- Javier Eduardo Vargas Calle
- Ziming Wang
- Máté Vass
- Ingrid Asp
- Merjan Beyza Kosucu
- Sofia Larsson
- Sarah Coker
- Sofia Persson
- Filip Petrini
- Klas Udekwu
- Polina Vaulina
- Mia Bengtsson
- Olga Borowska
- Rickard Stenow
- Natalia Toloczko
- Chimaobi David Onwukwe
- Rachel Goldstein
Related research projects
- Causes and consequences of prokaryotic intra-species diversification at the global scale
- Live monitoring of mussel farms in the Baltic Sea – to predict toxin production and minimize negative environmental impact
- DISCOMIX: Dissemination of antimicrobial resistance by community mixing events
- Climate adaptation and mapping of algal toxins associated to mussel farms
- Do the cyanobacteria perform nitrogen fixation in the Bothnian Sea?
- Revealing population traits of locally adapted filamentous cyanobacteria – using multiomics
- Toxicity of filamentous cyanobacteria in a warmer climate and their effect on zooplankton
- FUNACTION - conservation of aquatic fungi
- Microbiome monitoring for risk assessment in recirculating aquaculture systems
- MoSTFun - monitoring of aquatic fungi
- How do parasitic interactions modulate the fate of phytoplankton biomass during lake eutrophication
- Cultural mutuality; elucidating the adaptation strategies of freshwater microbes to eutrophication by combining high throughput cultivation and omics analyses (CUALITY)
- Virus-virus interaction strategies: Understanding functional strategies when multiple viruses co-infect a single host (mVish)
- Dispersal barriers and functional convergence in aquatic microorganisms
- AlgTox: competence center for algal toxin
- ARAMIS - Adaptive Radiation of Aquatic MIcrobial Species
- Beyond "Everywhere": Disentangling Dispersal Constraints of Aquatic Planktonic Diversity
- BIOFUN: Climate-induced changes in the biodiversity and function of Arctic/alpine streams and their landscapes
- Mälaren in focus
- Microbial Interactions in Methane & Sulfate Cycling
- Fish farming in the North
At the Division of Microbial Ecology we study ecology and diversity of microorganisms in aquatic ecosystems.
We share a passion for understanding the diversity, metabolism, and ecology of microbial ecosystem engineers. The group use methods such as environmental genomics, biogeochemical assays for field studies and experiments to address an array of interlinked questions on functional ecology, diversity, and microbial evolution. Our focus is on aquatic ecosystems, but the research also covers bacteria, archaea, microeukaryotes, and viruses in a wide range of ecosystems.
Division members
Principal investigators:
- Assoc. Prof. Anna Szekely, Researcher, Head of Division
- Dr. Attila Szabo, Researcher
- Assoc. Dr. Fernando Puente Sanchez, Researcher
- Assoc. Prof. Jennifer Anderson, Researcher
- Assoc. Prof. Maliheh Mehrshad, University Lecturer
- Assoc. Prof. Malin Olofsson, Researcher
- Dr. Máté Vass, Researcher
- Prof. Stefan Bertilsson, University Professor
Researchers, postdocs, environmental assessment specialists
- Dr. Klas Udekwu, Researcher
- Dr. Mariana Kluge, Researcher
- Dr. Rickard Stenow, Researcher
- Dr. Sofia Persson, Researcher
- Dr. Theresa Lumpi, Environmental Assessment Specialist
- Dr. Vesna Grujcic, Researcher
- Dr. Vinicius Silva Kavagutti, Researcher
- Dr. Ziming Wang, Postdoctoral Researcher
Technical staff
- Ana Cekol, Laboratory Assistant
- Dr. Claudia Bergin, Research Engineer
- Fanny Persson, Research Assistant
- Filip Petrini, Research Assistant
- Ingrid Rydhammer Asp, Research Assistant
- Dr. Javier Vargas, Research Engineer
- Rafael Augusto, Research Assistant
- Dr. Sarah Coker, ‘Mighty’, Research Engineer
PhD students
- Bella Safitri
- Charlotta Hagström
- Lauren Davies
- Jay Håkansson
- Manuela Seehauser
- Merjan Koşucu
- Natalia Tołoczko
- Nhat Ton Nguyen
- Rafael Augusto
- Ricardo Parizotto Ribeiro
- Sofia M Larsson
- Zahra Goodarzi
Students, guests and interns
- Alma Sandqvist, BSc student
- Bent Cottyn, BSc student
- Birte Repsilber, BSc student
- Charlie Havsblad, Research Intern
- Johanna Wennberg, BSc student
- Dr. Katarzyna Zaremba Niedzwiedzka, Research Intern
- María García Toledo, Guest PhD student
- Dr. Mia Bengtsson, August T Larsson Guest Researcher
- Rebecca Poms, MSc student
- Olga Borowska, MSc student
- Polina Vaulina, MSc student
- Chimaobi David Onwukwe, MSc student
- Dr. Rachel Goldstein, Guest Researcher
Alumni
- Ailin Rasaie, Guest PhD student 2025
- Konstantinos Kleidonaris, Research Intern 2025
- Mahwash Jamy, Postdoctoral Researcher 2022-2025
- Mariana Kluge, Postdoctoral Researcher 2022-2025
- Dr. Moritz Buck, Researcher