Member of the Faculty
Ph.D. Program in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School, CUNY
Ph.D. Princeton University
Office SB D-206
Telephone: (718) 997-3452
Fax: (718) 997-3299

Environmental microbiology. My research focuses upon the microbial ecology of aquatic environments. The microbial communities are studied in order to: 1) understand the variation and regulation of biogeochemical functioning in aquatic environments; 2) understand the interaction between human activities and pathogen dynamics in the environment.

Specific interests include studies of:

• nitrogen cycling in the coastal ocean, especially nitrification and denitrification.
• Factors regulating the variability in coastal water quality, including the persistence and growth of pathogens in estuaries.
• bioaerosols and the connection of water quality and air quality at the scale of the urban waterfront.
• changes in microbial diversity and activity in response to a) estuarine hypoxia; b) aquifer acidification.
• the role of subsurface microbial communities in altering carbon sequestration activities.

Data from my Hudson River water quality study can be found at:

www.riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/hudson_water_quality/

A list of courses taught:

Undergraduate

• GEOL 009 Introduction to Environmental Issues

Graduate

• GEOL 766 Analytical Approaches in Environmental Geosciences
• GEOL 799.3 Special Topics Aquatic Geomicrobiology

Selected Publications

Foster, R. and G. D. O’Mullan. 2008. Chapter 27-Nitrogen fixing and nitrifying symbioses in the marine environment. Pages 1197-1218. In: Nitrogen in the Marine Environment, 2nd edition. Edited by D. G. Capone, D. A. Bronk, M. R. Mulholland, and E. J. Carpenter. (2008)

Ward B. B. and G. D. O’Mullan. 2005. Community-level analysis: aerobic ammonia oxidation activity measurements and gene analysis. Methods in Enzymology 397: 395-413.

O’Mullan, G.D., and B.B. Ward. 2005. Comparison of temporal and spatial variation of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrification rates in Monterey Bay, CA. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 71(2): 697-705.

Francis, C., G.D. O’Mullan, and B.B. Ward. 2003. Diversity of ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) genes across environmental gradients in Chesapeake Bay sediments. Geobiology 1(2): 129-140.