Dexter Howard

IGC FELLOW    |   Global Change Center

Ph.D. Student  •   Biological Sciences  

Research Interests: Limnology, aquatic biogeochemistry, organic carbon cycling, drinking water quality

Advisor: Dr. Cayelan Carey

dwh1998@vt.edu

Dexter Howard joined Dr. Cayelan Carey’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences as a Ph.D. student in January 2021. He is broadly interested in carbon cycling and water quality in drinking water reservoirs and how modeling and ecological forecasting can be used to inform drinking water management. 

Dexter graduated in May 2020 from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Water: Resources, Policy, and Management from the College of Natural Resources and Environment. Throughout his undergraduate career he worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Carey Lab. As an undergrad in the Carey Lab, he worked on several different projects in addition to assisting with routine field work, data management, and analytical chemistry analyses. He conducted an independent senior thesis project exploring the drivers and variability of dissolved organic matter in a drinking water reservoir. 

As a graduate student, Dexter’s research will explore how different components of carbon cycling (metabolism rates, and organic matter quantity and quality) are influenced by global change and how we can model and forecast these changes. He is excited to work with the IGC community on interdisciplinary projects and improve his science communication skills.