Benedict A. Borer

Benedict Borer is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University’s School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. His lab works at the intersection of microbial biogeochemistry and ecology. It asks how interactions among physics, chemistry, and biology in microbial hotspots, such as sinking marine snow particles, biofilms, and soil pores, collectively shape the planet’s biogeochemistry and modulate anthropogenic pollution. The group combines microfluidic and millifluidic experiments with mechanistic modeling (individual-based models, genome-scale metabolic models) and field-based research.

Dr. Borer received his Ph.D. in environmental microbiology/soil physics from ETH Zürich in Switzerland, for which he received the ETH Silver Medal. Before joining Rutgers in 2024, he was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc Mobility Fellowship.