Adrienne Hoarfrost is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia with joint affiliations in the Institute for AI and Institute of Bioinformatics. As an environmental microbiologist, oceanographer, and machine learning scientist, Adrienne is interested in the complex interactions between microbes and their environment, how these micro-scale processes result in ecosystem- and global-scale impacts, and how we can capture this complexity to better understand the coevolution of life and Earth, create a sustainable future, and enable exploration of our universe. 

Adrienne received her AB from Dartmouth College where she studied Biology with a concentration in Geobiology. She received her PhD in Marine Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she used computational, experimental, and field-based approaches to explore the patterns of microbial communities driving carbon cycling in the marine environment. As a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, first in the Astrobiology Division then as a member of the ‘AI for Life in Space’ Initiative of the Space Biosciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, she developed deep learning and machine learning approaches for complex, high-dimensional, often low-sample-size biological settings across marine science, Earth science, and space science applications.

Adrienne is also a former Co-Founder and Chief Scientist for the ocean tech startup Fathom Carbon, and remains an active entrepreneur, advisor, and investor at the intersection of ocean, climate, and biotechnology. This is an exciting time for ocean science and technology, with many professional and entrepreneurship opportunities across the engineering, environmental, and biotech sectors. As an entrepreneur, Adrienne is actively pursuing translational opportunities that intersect with the fundamental research we do in the Hoarfrost Lab. For her trainees, Adrienne believes in building skills and creating opportunities beyond the science itself, to enable the next generation of scientists to make a greater impact in shaping our future, by whatever career path they choose.