Who is Luke?

Hello! My name is Luke and I am a scientist on planet Earth who is constantly fascinated by the overwhelming diversity of life. Most of these life forms are invisible to the naked eye but they are ubiquitous and incredibly abundant—in fact, there are more of these organisms living associated with your body than your body’s own human cells. But they don’t stop there. Microbes live in the dirt under our feet, the ocean, hot springs, Antarctic ice, deep sea hydrothermal vents, insect guts, and even deep mud layers beneath the ocean. They are crucial to our understanding of global chemistry like the oxygenation of our atmosphere and the regulation of many greenhouse gases. They have the power to elucidate the evolutionary history of life on Earth and some of them may even provide clues as to where else life may exist in our solar system and beyond! Not to mention, there is likely a wealth of untapped medical and industrial applications that these microbes have to offer. My current research is dedicated to understanding these incredible tiny creatures and, in particular, how they might help us tackle developing environmental catastrophes like climate change.

I currently work at LanzaTech where I’m the Systems Biology Manager, and I’m an affiliate researcher at Montana State University in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and the Center for Biofilm Engineering. I am a review editor for Extreme Microbiology, a part of the scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology. I live in Montana with my wife, our kiddo, our cat (Orbit), and our five chickens.

how can we look for alien life by studying the earth? watch this episode to find out…

Watch Luke’s TEDxBozeman Talk…

the most unknown

Luke is one of nine scientists featured in VICE Motherboard's first full-length documentary, The Most Unknown. It covers topics such as life on other planets, consciousness, time (what is it?!), and dark matter. Watch the trailer below!