Dr. Erin Field is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at East Carolina University (ECU). She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at Montana State University in 2011 and held postdoctoral researcher positions at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the University of Delaware before arriving in North Carolina in 2016. Her lab’s research primarily focuses on metal-microbe interactions in coastal environments and how these interactions affect larger processes, including biocorrosion of infrastructure and shipwrecks, contaminant mobility and metal cycling in the environment. She has published over 20 articles in this research area. Recently her lab’s work on the Pappy's Lane Shipwreck was featured on NPR’s Science Friday and in multiple online magazines, such as Popular Science and The Scientist. Field has a passion for student education and mentoring and in 2019, she was chosen as an American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellow Mentor. Field currently teaches courses in Microbiology, Microbial Biotechnology and Advanced Sequencing Techniques at ECU, which incorporate course-based undergraduate research (CUREs).