Dr. Boyd is a professor of geomicrobiology whose research focuses on how microbial life interfaces with its dynamic geological environment at the level of energy and nutrient acquisition. His research combines approaches ranging from microbial ecology, molecular evolution, physiology, and biochemistry to geochemistry and minerology to understand adaptations that have allowed life to co-evolve with its environment over Earth history. Over the past decade, his research has involved field studies of the hydrothermal systems in Yellowstone, Iceland, Japan and New Zealand, ice sheets and glaciers in the Arctic, deep subsurface environments in Oman, and hypersaline brines in Great Salt Lake, among others. His research has been supported by the NSF, NASA, DOE, NIH, USGS, and the WM Keck Foundation.