Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) K. King-Doonan

As the Biogeochemistry PM, Dr. King-Doonan seeks to support transformative research to enable unprecedented biological and chemical detection, prediction, manipulation, and mitigation strategies in complex environmental matrices. Her vision for the program is inherently interdisciplinary, incorporating recent discoveries in chemical, biological, and physical principles to enhance national security.

To accomplish this vision, Dr. King‑Doonan’s program emphasizes basic research focused on elucidating and characterizing novel biogeochemical mechanisms that drive the transformation and transportation of emerging compounds of concern within or across Army-relevant natural and built environments. Another focus area of the Program is exploring novel approaches to enable techniques for the detection, tracking, source partitioning, and prediction of compounds of interest at military-relevant scales. An emerging area of interest also focuses on characterizing how extreme environmental conditions alters the speciation, partitioning, transformation, and recovery of biological and chemical compounds of interest, including critical resources, to inform national security.

Dr. King-Doonan received her BS in Marine Science from Boston University in 2012 and her PhD in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences from Oregon State University in 2017. Her graduate work focused on developing the molybdenum isotope system as a paleoredox tracer to better understand the global oxygen cycle throughout Earth’s history. Prior to joining ARO, Dr. King-Doonan was awarded two postdoctoral fellowships to perform research at the University of British Columbia and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Through these positions, she contributed to the growing field of environmental forensics by utilizing non-traditional, heavy metal isotopes. Her most recent projects involved developing the analytical techniques to measure the isotopic fingerprints of molybdenum, iron, and barium to track and mitigate contaminant release into coastal environments as a function of sea level rise. In 2019, she joined the Biological and Biotechnology Sciences Branch of ARO as the Biogeochemistry PM.