Soil Microbial Ecology

Louis is a first-generation college graduate and scientist. He completed his PhD at the University of South Carolina in 2021, where he used functional genetics and comparative genomics to investigate interactions among bacteria, bacteriophages, and plants. Then he received a NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, a Stanford Discovery Grant, and funding from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) to build on his work at Stanford with Kabir Peay. There, Louis' work combined molecular field surveys, statistical modelling, multi-omics approaches, field manipulations, meta-analyses, and greenhouse experiments to investigate the mechanisms that facilitate interactions among bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and host plants. Afterwards, he began working at the University of Minnesota with Peter Kennedy to test questions about the generalizability of multipartite interactions in managed forest systems. He is an incoming Assistant Professor of Ecology at the University of Notre Dame, where his lab studies the effects of mycorrhizal helper bacteria on community assembly processes, plant growth responses, and cross-domain gene selection (coming Fall 2027). If you're interested in collaborating, chatting science, or joining the Berrios Lab, please feel free to send Louis an email.

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