Donna E. Fennell is an environmental engineer/environmental microbiologist who studies biological processes in natural and engineered systems. Her work seeks to discover novel activities of microorganisms in Earth’s atmosphere; understand factors controlling the activity, makeup and efficiency of microbial consortia in the waste to energy process, anaerobic digestion; and harness the power of microorganisms to treat contaminated groundwater and sediments. Her group uses interdisciplinary approaches, modeling and cutting-edge molecular and chemical tools to characterize diverse microbial environments.