Elizabeth Andruszkiewicz

Elizabeth Andruszkiewicz is a Ph.D. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Stanford University. Her work focuses on studying environmental DNA (eDNA) in oceanic environments to further the advancement of identifying species in the water column from just a single water sample. She is interested in investigating the persistence and transport of eDNA to better understand how to interpret results from both metabarcoding and quantitative PCR assays. She is currently working on developing a modeling framework for eDNA transport in Monterey Bay subject to different forcing scenarios and eDNA properties. Previous work includes investigating the spatial heterogeneity of eDNA in the water column and the role of sunlight in eDNA decay in marine waters.

Before starting her M.S./Ph.D. at Stanford, Elizabeth completed her B.S. at the University of Notre Dame in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She started her research on eDNA there, focusing on transport of eDNA in freshwater streams using both laboratory experiments and field experiments at the Notre Dame Linked Experimental Ecosystem Facility (LEEF). Elizabeth is and has been supported by the Neukermans Family Graduate Fellowship and the Charles H. Leavell Graduate Student Fellowship, and was awarded a Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship in 2016.