Rachel Parsons is a microbial oceanographer at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS). She investigates microbial communities using a variety of molecular techniques. She currently runs the microbial ecology laboratory and the microscopy and image analysis facility as well as being an investigator with BIOS-SCOPE. Her range of projects include viral and microbial dynamics at the BATS site, microbial communities within a seasonally anoxic sound, coral-microbe interactions and the effect of sewage pollution on coral reef environments.