PhD in Oceanography (University of Washington). Bioinformatics researcher specializing in marine microbial ecology, functional genomics, and computational pipeline development. Current work focuses on emergence and adaptive intelligence at the human-AI interface.
Research Continuity
My doctoral work examined microbial eukaryotes in ocean transition zones—regions where biogeochemical gradients create conditions for adaptive mixotrophy and metabolic flexibility. Organisms at these boundaries develop strategies for navigating between distinct ecological states, responding to shifting resource availability and environmental constraints.
This systems-level approach to understanding emergence in boundary conditions naturally extends to studying intelligence across domain interfaces. Both domains require frameworks for analyzing how complex adaptive systems operate in threshold spaces where established categories break down and new organizational patterns become possible.
Key Projects
- MarFERReT — Marine Functional EukaRyotic Redundancy-minimized Transcript database. Open-source, version-controlled reference library for marine microbial eukaryote functional genes. GitHub | Publication
- North Pacific Eukaryotic Gene Catalog — Comprehensive metatranscriptome assembly and annotation resource from North Pacific surface waters. GitHub | Publication
- foxcoded — Technical consulting and infrastructure work across domain interfaces. foxcoded.xyz
Publications & Profiles
- LinkedIn — Professional profile
- ResearchGate — Scientific profile
- GitHub — Code repositories and bioinformatics tools
- Google Scholar — h-index 13+, 900+ citations
- ORCID — 0000-0001-7874-7217
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Groussman, R. D., Coesel, S. N., Schatz, M., Durham, B. P., & Armbrust, E. V. The North Pacific Eukaryotic Gene Catalog of metatranscriptome assemblies and annotations. Scientific Data, in revision. 10.5281/zenodo.10472589
- Groussman, R. D., Blaskowski, S., Coesel, S. N., & Armbrust, E. V. MarFERReT, an open-source, version-controlled reference library of marine microbial eukaryote functional genes. Scientific Data, 10(1), 926. 10.1038/s41597-023-02842-4
- Graff van Creveld, S., Coesel, S. N., Blaskowski, S., Groussman, R. D., Schatz, M. J., & Armbrust, E. V. Divergent functions of two clades of flavodoxin in diatoms mitigate oxidative stress and iron limitation. eLife, 12, e84392. 10.7554/elife.84392
- Lambert, B. S., Groussman, R. D., Schatz, M. J., Coesel, S. N., Durham, B. P., Alverson, A. J., … & Armbrust, E. V. The dynamic trophic architecture of open-ocean protist communities revealed through machine-guided metatranscriptomics. PNAS, 119(7). 10.1073/pnas.2100916119
- Boysen, A. K., Durham, B. P., Kumler, W., Key, R. S., Heal, K. R., Carlson, L., Groussman, R. D., … & Ingalls, A. E. Glycine betaine uptake and metabolism in marine microbial communities. Environmental Microbiology. 10.1111/1462-2920.16020
- Park, J., Durham, B. P., Key, R. S., Groussman, R. D., Pinedo-Gonzalez, P., Hawco, N. J., … & Bundy, R. M. Siderophore production and utilization by microbes in the North Pacific Ocean. bioRxiv (preprint). 10.1101/2022.02.26.482025
- Groussman, R. D., Coesel, S. N., Durham, B. P., & Armbrust, E. V. Diel-regulated transcriptional cascades of microbial eukaryotes in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12, 682651. 10.3389/fmicb.2021.682651
- Boysen, A. K., Carlson, L. T., Durham, B. P., Groussman, R. D., Aylward, F. O., Ribalet, F., … & Ingalls, A. E. Particulate metabolites and transcripts reflect diel oscillations of microbial activity in the surface ocean. mSystems, 6(3). 10.1128/msystems.00896-20
- Coesel, S. N., Durham, B. P., Groussman, R. D., Hu, S. K., Caron, D. A., Morales, R. L., … & Armbrust, E. V. Diel transcriptional oscillations of light-sensitive regulatory elements in open-ocean eukaryotic plankton communities. PNAS, 118(6). 10.1073/pnas.2011038118
- Durham, B. P., Boysen, A. K., Carlson, L. T., Groussman, R. D., Heal, K. R., Cain, K. R., … & Armbrust, E. V. Sulfonate-based networks between eukaryotic phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria in the surface ocean. Nature Microbiology, 4(10), 1706–1715. 10.1038/s41564-019-0507-5
- Becker, K. W., Collins, J. R., Durham, B. P., Groussman, R. D., White, A. E., Fredricks, H. F., … & Van Mooy, B. A. S. Daily changes in phytoplankton lipidomes reveal mechanisms of energy storage in the open ocean. Nature Communications, 9(1). 10.1038/s41467-018-07346-z
- Groussman, R. D., Parker, M. S., & Armbrust, E. V. Diversity and evolutionary history of iron metabolism genes in diatoms. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0129081. 10.1371/journal.pone.0129081
- Hennon, G. M., Ashworth, J., Groussman, R. D., Berthiaume, C., Morales, R. L., Baliga, N. S., … & Armbrust, E. V. Diatom acclimation to elevated CO2 via cAMP signalling and coordinated gene expression. Nature Climate Change, 5(8), 761–765. 10.1038/nclimate2683
Current Work
Consulting and research at the intersection of complex adaptive systems, artificial intelligence, and computational biology. Available for fractional consulting work, bioinformatics pipeline troubleshooting, interdisciplinary translation, and research collaboration.