Image: The faculty and staff of the Division of Biological Sciences offer their congratulations to Paula Rios on the publication of co-authored "Salmonella genomics and population analyses reveal high inter- and intra- serovar diversity in freshwater" in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Paula participated in a two year study within the Susquehanna River watershed in Pennsylvania in which she investigated Salmonella prevalence and serotype diversity . Notable findings of this study include the considerable serotype diversity throughout the watershed and that clinically important serotypes were prevalent yet less abundant within individual samples that would not typically have been identified by traditional culturing techniques for Salmonella. During the Summer 2020 CURO Research Assistantship program and the BIOL 4960R course, Paula was able to perform genomic analyses of multiple serotypes using whole genome sequence data and generated then assessed phylogenetic trees for relatedness of isolates from multiple water samples. The published article can be access through UGA Libraries. Deaven, A. M., Ferreira, C. M., Reed, E. A., Chen See, J. R., Lee, N. A., Almaraz, E., Rios, P. C., Marogi, J. G., Lamendella, R., Zheng, J., Bell, R. L., & Shariat, N. W. (2021). Salmonella genomics and population analyses reveal high inter- and intra- serovar diversity in freshwater. Applied and environmental microbiology, AEM.02594-20. Advance online publication. https://doi-org.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/10.1128/AEM.02594-20