Experience

Experience#

Michael J. Sieler Jr., Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher, Liberti Lab

Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland

Michael.SielerJr@UniGe.ch | MichaelSieler.com | GitHub | LinkedIn

Photo of Michael

Summary#

  • Data scientist with 8+ years of experience developing and applying computational, statistical, and experimental approaches to complex biological datasets

  • Expertise in multivariate modeling, longitudinal data analysis, multi-omic integration, reproducible workflows, and FAIR data practices

  • Proven collaborator across international, interdisciplinary, and cross-functional teams, with a strong record of translating complex data into actionable scientific insights through publications, workshops, and collaborative research support

  • Experienced in written, oral and visual communication across scientific and public audiences

Education#

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

Sept 2025

Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

  • B.Sc. Bioresource Research, options in Bioinformatics and Genomics (GPA: 3.82)

June 2020

Research Appointments#

University of Geneva — Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Liberti Lab, Department of Genetics and Evolution. Geneva, Switzerland.

  • Research focus in gut microbiota–brain axis of eusocial bee model systems

  • See in-prep bumblebee microbiome work on the Publications page

2026–Present

Oregon State University — Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR.

  • Sharpton Lab — microbiome data science

2025

Oregon State University — Ph.D. Graduate Student Researcher

  • Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR.

  • Advised by Dr. Thomas J. Sharpton

  • Research focus in host-associated microbiome stability to environmental stressors

2020–2025

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory — Ph.D. Intern

  • Richland, WA.

  • Mentors: Lisa Bramer and Kelly Stratton

  • Research focus in metabolomic data science and bioinformatics

2023–2024

Oregon State University — Undergraduate Student Researcher

  • Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR.

  • Advised by Dr. Thomas J. Sharpton

  • Research focus in zebrafish microbiome ecology and bioinformatics

2018–2020

Oregon State University — Undergraduate Student Researcher

  • Department of Pharmacy, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR.

  • Advised by Dr. Taifo Mahmud

  • Research focus in identifying novel antibiotic compounds

2017–2018

Work#

HandshakeAI — Expert Biology AI Data Labeler

  • Contributed biological domain expertise to development of 100+ LLM prompts and evaluation tasks for scientific AI applications

  • Improved biological accuracy, consistency, and scientific reasoning in AI-generated outputs through expert review and feedback

2025

Microbiome Data Analytics Boot Camp — Trainer

  • Skills for Health and Research Professionals (SHARP), Columbia University - “Planning, generating, and analyzing 16S rRNA gene sequencing surveys” - Supported workshop participants and lecturers in microbiome data analysis and pedagogy

2025

National Microbiome Data Collaborative — FAIR Microbiome Data Fellow

  • Recognized for early career contributions promoting findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) microbiome research data and workflows

  • Led workshops on metadata standards and submission portals; trained researchers in reproducible microbiome research workflows

2024–2025

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory — Ph.D. Bioinformatics Intern

  • Projects: - Batch effect correction algorithm (BECA) evaluation

    • Bioinformatically processed and analyzed 200+ lipidomic samples; evaluated 12 commonly used BECA methods using ground truth from a designed experiment

  • Tools used: - R

2023–2024

Teaching#

University of Geneva — Postdoctoral Fellow, Co-instructor

  • Microbiome Analysis (co-instructor)

2026

Oregon State University — Graduate Teaching Assistant

  • General Microbiology Lab (MB 303, Spring)

  • Human Microbiome (MB 436, Spring)

  • Introduction to Microbiology (MB 230, Spring)

2021–2023

Mentorship#

University of Geneva

  • Genetics and Evolution Ph.D. and master’s students

2026–Present

Oregon State University

  • Microbiology Ph.D. and undergraduate students

2023–2025

Peer Review#

Awards, Honors & Fellowships#

OSU Scholarly Presentation Award

  • Competitive Funding Recipient

  • Awarded competitive funding to support graduate students presenting their research at professional conferences.

2024

$600

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Health Graduate Research Fellowship

  • Fish Health Graduate Research Fellow

  • Recognized for research in Microbiology at Oregon State University, focusing on fish health issues to benefit Oregon’s fish populations.

2023–2025

$56,000

NMDC Ambassador

  • Ambassador

  • Recognized for early career contributions promoting findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) microbiome research data and workflows; led workshops on metadata standards and submission portals.

2024–2025

$1,000

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

  • Science Communication Fellow

  • Received certified training in informal science education and engagement with public audiences to increase their understanding of STEM research.

2020–2022

$1,000

ARCS Foundation

  • ARCS Scholar

  • Recognized for early significant contributions to scientific research.

2020–2023

$18,000

Professional Affiliations and Service#

Leidholdt Microbiology Summer Camp — Camp Mentor - Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR. - Supervised 20 high school students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in learning laboratory techniques.

2022, 2024, 2025

Food and Nutrition Special Interest Section — Founding Section Member - Oregon Public Health Association. Portland, OR.

2023–2025

Microbes and Social Equity Working Group — Member

2022–Present

Microbiology Graduate Student Association — President - Oregon State University. Corvallis, OR.

2022–2023

Certificates#

Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp with R

  • Program with R to wrangle, clean, analyze, and visualize data.

  • Apply advanced statistics and machine learning to gain useful insights.

  • Certificate

2021

Skills#

Programming:

  • R

  • Python

  • Bash/Unix

  • Git

  • HTML & CSS

  • C++ (Unity)

  • C# (Unity)

Statistics and Data Analytics:

  • Machine learning

  • Multivariate regression

  • Model building and selection

  • Longitudinal data analysis

  • Data visualization (ggplot2, Plotly, R Shiny)

Bioinformatics:

  • nf-core pipelines

  • 16S sequencing

  • Transcriptomics

  • Metagenomics

  • Metabolomics

  • Phylogenetics

  • Batch effect correction algorithms

  • DADA2, Phyloseq

Molecular Biology:

  • Zebrafish husbandry

    • Germ-free derivation

  • DNA extraction

  • PCR amplification

  • Gel electrophoresis

  • Bacterial culturing

Other:

  • Microsoft Office Suite

  • Adobe Suite

  • Reproducible workflows

  • FAIR data practices

Languages:

  • English (native)

  • German (B2, intermediate)

  • Spanish (A1, beginner)

Download Resume & CV#

Resume (one page)

CV

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