Biography

Dr. Brent Robicheau is an environmental microbiologist and geneticist. He earned his BScH and MSc in Biology from Acadia University, where he investigated the evolution of ribosomal RNA gene clusters in relation to junk DNA production and characterized mitochondrial genomes in bivalves and fungal endophytes. He then completed his PhD at Dalhousie University, where his doctoral research described phytoplankton community dynamics in the Northwest Atlantic, microdiversity in the nitrogen-fixing algal symbiont UCYN-A (now recognized as a recently evolved organelle), and the biogeography of nitrogen-fixing microbes in the Canadian Arctic Gateway. Additional research collaborations have also included an interdisciplinary study on the impact of winter mixing on coastal nitrification processes, and a comprehensive species description of a newly isolated heterotrophic nitrogen-fixer with a global distribution in the ocean. Following his PhD, Dr. Robicheau held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Clark University (Massachusetts, USA), where he worked alongside Roger Williams University researchers in Rhode Island to investigate host-viral interactions between Synechococcus cyanobacteria and cyanophage in estuarine systems. Broadly, his research aims to deepen our understanding of the ecology and genomics of microbes in the marine realm.

Current Volunteer & Scholarly Positions:
Vice-President and Awards Committee Chair
Nova Scotian Institute of Science (NSIS)
Reviewing Editor
Microbiology Resource Announcements
Editorial Board Member
Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science
Institutional Representative (UPEI)
Canadian Bioinformatics Hub: Atlantic Regional Node
Committee Member
Mycological Society of America Canadian Chapter
Organizing Committee Member
Canadian Fungal Network (CanFunNet) 2025 Virtual Conference

Past Affiliations and Mentors
Acadia University (Marty Snyder, Don Stewart, and Allison Walker Labs)
Dalhousie University (Julie LaRoche Lab)
Clark University (Nathan Ahlgren Lab)

Funding: Dr. Robicheau’s research has been supported throughout the years by NSERC (CGS-D + PDF), the province of Nova Scotia’s Graduate Scholarships program, and the Killam awards program.