Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities Mallory Choudoir
Assistant Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology
Mallory Choudoir joined NC State in September 2022 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities. As an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Choudoir focuses on microbial ecology and evolution, soil ecology, plant-soil-microbe interactions, agroecosystems, global change biology, biogeography, genomics, and environmental and social justice.
Her research group focuses on the ecological and evolutionary processes driving plant-soil-microbe interactions in North Carolina agroecosystems, and their work supports the NC State Extension mission. Climate change, intensive agriculture practices and the increasing demands of food systems threaten soil microbiome biodiversity and their important ecosystem functions. At the same time, microbial solutions to agronomic challenges can support sustainability goals. Her group’s research also impacts decisions about land management, cropping systems, and nutrient inputs to prioritize soil microbiome resilience and stability and to maximize crop productivity.
Choudoir is also an extension specialist with NC State Extension, where she focuses on the ecological and evolutionary processes driving plant-soil-microbe interactions in North Carolina agroecosystems. The goal of her extension program is to translate microbiome science into solutions for sustainable agriculture, with goals including: evaluating microbial products and biological simulants, innovating microbiome-based solutions, and extending timely and useful information to diverse audiences.
Choudoir obtained her Bachelor of Science in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin Madison and her Ph.D. in microbiology from Cornell University. There, she developed a thesis on “Population-level approaches to elucidating the evolutionary forces driving Streptomyces biogeography.” She received NC State’s Global One Health Academy Faculty Travel Award in 2024, the Faculty Research and Professional Development Award from the Office of Research and Innovation and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2023, and the Community Sequencing Project New Investigator Award from the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in 2023.
