Prof. Shady Amin
During his doctoral studies, Shady studied iron acquisition mechanisms in marine bacteria under the supervision of Dr. Carl Carrano. He showed that iron-binding ligands (a.k.a. siderophores) produced by algal-associated bacteria provided algae with bioavailable iron tthrough photochemical reactions in exchange for organic carbon. After his Ph.D., Shady continued his research on microbial interactions at the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography under the supervision of Dr. Ginger Armbrust. His research identified a widespread mode of signaling between a group of phytoplankton (Figure 1) and associated bacteria, whereby some bacteria produced a hormone that stimulated algal cell division, photosynthesis and carbon fixation. In 2015, Shady joined NYU Abu Dhabi as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Program.