Emily Townsend has a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern California. While pursuing her master’s degree, Emily worked in the Marine Trace Element Laboratory (MTEL) at USC and investigated the biogeochemical cycling of important trace metal nutrients, like iron, cadmium, and zinc, throughout the global oceans. Emily assisted with the development of the Pelagic Ecosystem Research Incubator (PERI) project as part of the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE). The objective of the PERI-SCOPE project was to design and employ larger-scale incubation systems (referred to as PERIcosms) for the manipulation of oligotrophic marine ecosystems so that we may better understand how these ecosystems function. Emily co-led several collaborative field campaigns in which the PERIcosms were used to investigate the impacts of variable nutrient supply on the microbial ecology of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Emily’s current work at Trussell involves assistance in monitoring and reporting for compliance and proposal writing.