Ana "Mindy" Morales-Williams
Acting Director, Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory
Assistant Professor
- Ph.D. Iowa State University 2016
- M.Sc. Trent University 2011
- B.S. Florida International University 2009
BIO
Mindy's a limnologist specializing in phytoplankton community ecology and carbon biogeochemistry. Her research focuses on the role of disturbance in driving lake ecosystem function across space and time. She is interested in how anthropogenic disturbance (watershed land use, climate change) drives algal community assembly and cyanobacteria bloom formation, linking fine scale physiological mechanisms with ecosystem and landscape scale processes. Mindy's lab group integrates paleolimnological approaches with ecological theory, experimental manipulations, and high-frequency monitoring to understand and define community assembly rules and feedbacks across scales.
Mindy is originally from Miami, Florida, and grew up in rural north Georgia. She attended Miami-Dade Community College, then completed a BS in Biological Sciences at Florida International University in Miami. Her MSc thesis at Trent University (Ontario) focused on organic matter cycling and trace metal stoichiometry in shallow lakes. At Iowa State University, her PhD research investigated the phenology of cyanobacteria blooms and carbon flux in agricultural lakes. In the Rubenstein School, Mindy teaches Limnology (NR 250), Ecology of Freshwater Algae (NR 295), and Environmental Science (ENSC 1).
Area(s) of expertise
Instructional programs: Environmental Sciences; Natural Resources; Sustainability, Ecology and Policy
Research: Limnology, phytoplankton ecology, biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, lake ecosystem ecology
Bio
Mindy's a limnologist specializing in phytoplankton community ecology and carbon biogeochemistry. Her research focuses on the role of disturbance in driving lake ecosystem function across space and time. She is interested in how anthropogenic disturbance (watershed land use, climate change) drives algal community assembly and cyanobacteria bloom formation, linking fine scale physiological mechanisms with ecosystem and landscape scale processes. Mindy's lab group integrates paleolimnological approaches with ecological theory, experimental manipulations, and high-frequency monitoring to understand and define community assembly rules and feedbacks across scales.
Mindy is originally from Miami, Florida, and grew up in rural north Georgia. She attended Miami-Dade Community College, then completed a BS in Biological Sciences at Florida International University in Miami. Her MSc thesis at Trent University (Ontario) focused on organic matter cycling and trace metal stoichiometry in shallow lakes. At Iowa State University, her PhD research investigated the phenology of cyanobacteria blooms and carbon flux in agricultural lakes. In the Rubenstein School, Mindy teaches Limnology (NR 250), Ecology of Freshwater Algae (NR 295), and Environmental Science (ENSC 1).
Areas of Expertise
Instructional programs: Environmental Sciences; Natural Resources; Sustainability, Ecology and Policy
Research: Limnology, phytoplankton ecology, biogeochemistry, carbon cycling, lake ecosystem ecology