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Andrea Rocha is a scientist at Geosyntec Consultants. Prior to their current position, they were a postdoctoral research associate at Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from May 2012 to September 2016. There, they designed, lead, and executed efficient field and laboratory-based research strategies to investigate and characterize keystone microbial species differences along geochemical gradients, including chemical contaminants, in groundwater and subsurface environments. Rocha also optimized molecular biology protocols for environmental sampling and facilitated collaboration and communication between multi-disciplinary teams, universities, and national laboratories leading towards successful completion of projects and peer-reviewed journal publications. Additionally, they managed data collection for data quality control and analyzed groundwater geochemical, and hydrological, metagenomic datasets, including 16S rRNA high-throughput sequence data.

Rocha has also authored project quality documents, such as quarterly and semi-annual status reports, to present progress to team project grant manager and funding agencies (Department of Energy) as well as contributed to the successful completion of internal equipment grant proposals (Total: $69,300).

Andrea Rocha has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Engineering Science from the University of South Florida, a Master’s Degree in Oceanography from Old Dominion University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Andrea is also certified by the American Red Cross in Adult First Aid/CPR/AED and by Geosyntec Consultants in OSHA 40-hour HAZWOPER/ 8 hr Refresher.

Some of their coworkers include Allison Kreinberg - Project Scientist, Herwig Goldemund - Senior Scientist. Andrea Rocha reports to Ryan Fimmen, Principal Scientist.