Hanna Peach

Hydro Nation Scholar PhD student.

Photo of Hanna Peach holding samples whilst stading in a river

Hanna is a Hydro Nation Scholar working towards a PhD in microbial ecology and bioremediation. Her project is to eludidate the metabolic capabilities of microbial metabolism of environmentally harmful micropollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors) from waterways, to improve ecosystem health. This is achieved by exploiting extant enzymes harboured by specific microbial taxa capable of metabolising a wide range of pharmaceutical compounds to gain energy and carbon. Her supervisors are Dr Andrew Free and Dr Eulyn Pagaling from James Hutton Institute.

Originally from Aotearoa (Kia Ora! Kei te pēhea koe?), Hanna previously resided in the Geomicrobiology Research Group at GNS Science in New Zealand, characterising extremophilic taxa and exploring the microbial ecology of volcanic areas and hot springs. 

The microbiology of geothermal hotsprings in New Zealand

She has worked on many research and industrial projects, including the 1000 Springs Project, and with NASA-Ames and JGI researching Pisolithus endosymbionts. She holds a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Science with first-class honours from the University of Waikato. My MSc research was on the extremophilic metabolism of tropospheric trace gases in Tongariro Volcanic Soils.

University of Waikato

Investigation into the microbial ecology and persistence of soil taxa through trace-gas oxidation in Tongariro National Park

Her current research interests are microbial ecology, extreme terrestrial ecosystems and astrobiology, ecological restoration, bioremediation, biofuels, SciComm. To contact Hanna by email: hanna.peach@ed.ac.uk.

Hanna's LinkedIn profile

Hanna's Hydro Nation Scholars profile

She is the former student representative for IQB3, a presenter and social media manager for BioPOD, the official podcast for the School of Biological Sciences and a volunteer for science communication with Edinburgh Science Festival and Midlothian Science Festival.

 IQB3   |   BioPOD

Edinburgh Science Festival   |   Midlothian Science Festival

Publications

Carere, C. R., McDonald, B., Peach, H., Greening, C., Gapes, D., Collet, C., & Stott, M. B. (2019). Hydrogen oxidation influences glycogen accumulation in a verrucomicrobial methanotroph. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10, 1873.

This article was published on