About

Greetings! My name is Jonas Koh, and I am a scientist at the National Parks Board, Singapore. Prior to being a scientist, I obtained my PhD with the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme - Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the same institution. Photography has always been a passion of mine, and I began snapping photos with my first iPhone (an iPhone 5) in 2013. I started posting my pictures on Instagram to share my perspective and showcase my some of my favourite frames. Instagram has provided me with an opportunity to connect with photographers from all over the world and, most importantly, to draw inspiration from their work.

This blog is a platform for me to share more of my photography and document my daily life (when I'm not occupied with thesis writing or experiments!). I invite you to explore my posts and hope that you will find them as enjoyable to read as I did creating them.

In terms of my PhD research, I was investigating the plastisphere, which refers to the microorganisms that colonize plastic debris, in tropical coastal ecosystems. While many people associate marine plastic debris with images of animals dying from eating plastic, there is also a significant presence of microbes living on these plastic surfaces. My research aimed to uncover the impact of these microorganisms on the surrounding ecosystems. Specifically, I was interested in discovering whether there are any biodegrading microbes living on plastic surfaces that we can isolate and engineer to combat our plastic pollution crisis. I was also curious about the impact of plastisphere on vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Without going into too much in detail, I am going to link a few of my works below (if you cannot access do drop me an email, I will gladly send you a copy)!

Phototrophs as the central components of the plastisphere microbiome in coastal environment
Contributors: Sakcham Bairoliya, Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang, Zin Thida Cho, Bin Cao

Sediment-driven plastisphere community assembly on plastic debris in tropical coastal and marine environments
Contributors: Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang, Sakcham Bairoliya, Maria Salta, Zin Thida Cho, Jenny Fong, Mei Lin Neo, Simon Cragg, Bin Cao

Plastic-microbe interaction in the marine environment: Research methods and opportunities
Contributors: Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang; Sakcham Bairoliya; Zin Thida Cho; Bin Cao

Monochloramine Induces Release of DNA and RNA from Bacterial Cells: Quantification, Sequencing Analyses, and Implications
Contributors: Sakcham Bairoliya; Apoorva Goel; Manisha Mukherjee; Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang; Bin Cao

Extracellular DNA in Environmental Samples: Occurrence, Extraction, Quantification, and Impact on Microbial Biodiversity Assessment
Contributors: Sakcham Bairoliya; Jonas Koh Zhi Xiang; Bin Cao