Ari Isbi is a PhD student in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science, working under the supervision of Prof. Assaf Vardi. He holds a BSc in Plant Sciences and Biotechnology from the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and MSc in Life Sciences from the Weizmann Institute.
Ari’s research lies at the intersection of microbial ecology, molecular biology, and climate science. He investigates how interactions between marine algae and bacteria shape the global carbon cycle by influencing both the quantity and molecular composition of organic matter in the ocean. During his MSc, he developed a GFP-based bioreporter that senses algal exudates—chemical signals that can trigger bacterial lifestyle switches, including the transition to pathogenicity. His current PhD work expands on this to explore how diverse microbial interactions and chemical communication impact the fate of carbon in marine ecosystems.