In the media
Finding predictability in the teeming world of bacteria (WashU Ampersand, 2026)
When physics meets ecology (WashU “The Source”, 2025)
Simple rules govern soil microbiome responses to environmental change (UChicago Biological Sciences News; 2025)
Want to find alien life? Look for patterns of energy (EarthSky.org)
How to (theoretically) spot an alien (WashU Ampersand; 2025)
Tikhonov wins NSF CAREER award (WashU Ampersand; 2024)
When predicting the function of microbial communities, simpler may be better (UChicago Biological Sciences News; 2023)
When more complex is simpler (WashU “The Source”; 2022)
Bacteria could learn to predict the future (WashU “The Source”; 2021)
Opinion: Microbiology Needs More Math (The Scientist Magazine; 2017)
Imagining a world without species (Harvard SEAS News; 2017)
Resource competition: When communities collide (eLife; 2016)
Grants and awards
🔹 04/2026 - Quan wins the Greg Delos summer fellowship from the Physics department to support his summer research
🔹 03/2026 - Chunhao is awarded SURGE summer funding from the Office of Undergraduate Research
🔹 01/2026 - Queenie wins the DBIO Travel award to present her work at the APS Global Summit in Denver.
🔹 12/2025 - Chunhao & Queenie both win department funding to support their research in the spring.
🏅 09/2025 - Mikhail is awarded the NIH MIRA grant (5 years of research funding).
🏅 08/2025 - Mikhail & Seppe are awarded an ARO research grant (3 years).
🔹 04/2025 - Yunshi and Queenie win funding to do summer research with our group.
🏅 04/2025 - Mateja is awarded the McDonnell Academy Fellowship, and will join us in the fall.
🏅 07/2024 - Mikhail wins the NSF CAREER award (5 years of research funding).
🏅 09/2023 - Jake wins the prestigious Pioneer Postdoctoral Fellowship at UMichigan.
🏅 07/2023 - Mikhail & Otto are awarded the NSF Physics of Living Systems research grant (3 years).
News and milestones
🎓 04/2026 - Yunshi accepts the graduate school offer from Emory University.
🎓 03/2026 - Queenie accepts the graduate school offer with the University of Chicago biophysics program.
🎓 05/2025 - Fang defends her PhD! Congratulations, Dr. Yu, on the new role at Huawei!
🎓 03/2025 - Mikhail is promoted with tenure.
🔹 01/2025 - Lucas is featured in the “department spotlight” newsletter for their work as the graduate Head Mentor.
🔹 03/2024 - Lucas is accepted into MBL Physiology course with full scholarship. 7 weeks of madness! Good luck!
🎓 05/2023 - Jake becomes the group's first ever PhD graduate! Congratulations, Dr. Moran!
🎓 03/2022 - Devon accepts a PhD offer from the Yale Biophysics program.
🔹 01/2022 - Jake is selected as one of the speakers for Princeton’s “up-and-coming biophysicists” symposium.