DOE Joint Genome Institute

  • COVID-19
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Our Science
    • DOE Mission Areas
    • Science Programs
    • Science Highlights
    • Scientists
    A vertical tree stump outdoors with about a dozen shiitake mushrooms sprouting from its surface.
    Tracing the Evolution of Shiitake Mushrooms
    Understanding Lentinula genomes and their evolution could provide strategies for converting plant waste into sugars for biofuel production. Additionally, these fungi play a role in the global carbon cycle.

    More

    Soil Virus Offers Insight into Maintaining Microorganisms
    Through a collaborative effort, researchers have identified a protein in soil viruses that may promote soil health.

    More

    Data yielded from RIViT-seq increased the number of sigma factor-gene pairs confirmed in Streptomyces coelicolor from 209 to 399. Here, grey arrows denote previously known regulation and red arrows are regulation identified by RIViT-seq; orange nodes mark sigma factors while gray nodes mark other genes. (Otani, H., Mouncey, N.J. Nat Commun 13, 3502 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31191-w)
    Streamlining Regulon Identification in Bacteria
    Regulons are a group of genes that can be turned on or off by the same regulatory protein. RIViT-seq technology could speed up associating transcription factors with their target genes.

    More

  • Our Projects
    • Search JGI Projects
    • DOE Metrics/Statistics
    • Approved User Proposals
    • Legacy Projects
    A panoramic view of a lake reflecting a granite mountain.
    Genome Insider: Methane Makers in Yosemite’s Lakes
    Meet researchers who sampled the microbial communities living in the mountaintop lakes of the Sierra Nevada mountains to see how climate change affects freshwater ecosystems, and how those ecosystems work.

    Listen

    A light green shrub with spiny leaves, up close.
    Genome Insider: A Shrubbier Version of Rubber
    Hear from the consortium working on understanding the guayule plant's genome, which could lead to an improved natural rubber plant.

    Listen

    The switchgrass diversity panel growing at the Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan. (David Lowry)
    Mapping Switchgrass Traits with Common Gardens
    The combination of field data and genetic information has allowed researchers to associate climate adaptations with switchgrass biology.

    More

  • Data & Tools
    • IMG
    • Data Portal
    • MycoCosm
    • PhycoCosm
    • Phytozome
    • GOLD
    iPHoP image (Simon Roux)
    iPHoP: A Matchmaker for Phages and their Hosts
    Building on existing virus-host prediction approaches, a new tool combines and evaluates multiple predictions to reliably match viruses with their archaea and bacteria hosts.

    More

    Abstract image of gold lights and squares against a black backdrop
    Silver Age of GOLD Introduces New Features
    The Genomes OnLine Database makes curated microbiome metadata that follows community standards freely available and enables large-scale comparative genomics analysis initiatives.

    More

    Graphical overview of the RNA Virus MetaTranscriptomes Project. (Courtesy of Simon Roux)
    A Better Way to Find RNA Virus Needles in the Proverbial Database Haystacks
    Researchers combed through more than 5,000 data sets of RNA sequences generated from diverse environmental samples around the world, resulting in a five-fold increase of RNA virus diversity.

    More

  • User Programs
    • Calls for Proposals
    • Special Initiatives & Programs
    • Product Offerings
    • User Support
    • Policies
    • Submit a Proposal
    Green plant matter grows from the top, with the area just beneath the surface also visible as soil, root systems and a fuzzy white substance surrounding them.
    Supercharging SIP in the Fungal Hyphosphere
    Applying high-throughput stable isotope probing to the study of a particular fungi, researchers identified novel interactions between bacteria and the fungi.

    More

    Digital ID card with six headshots reads: Congratulations to our 2022 Function Genomics recipients!
    Final Round of 2022 CSP Functional Genomics Awardees
    Meet the final six researchers whose proposals were selected for the 2022 Community Science Program Functional Genomics call.

    More

    croppe image of the JGI helix sculpture
    Tips for a Winning Community Science Program Proposal
    In the Genome Insider podcast, tips to successfully avail of the JGI's proposal calls, many through the Community Science Program.

    Listen

  • News & Publications
    • News
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
    • Publications
    • Newsletter
    • Logos and Templates
    • Photos
    2022 JGI-UC Merced interns (Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab)
    Exploring Possibilities: 2022 JGI-UC Merced Interns
    The 2022 UC Merced intern cohort share how their summer internship experiences have influenced their careers in science.

    More

    image from gif that shows where in the globe JGI fungal collaborators are located.
    Using Team Science to Build Communities Around Data
    As the data portals grow and evolve, the research communities further expand around them. But with two projects, communities are forming to generate high quality genomes to benefit researchers.

    More

    Cow Rumen and the Early Days of Metagenomics
    Tracing a cow rumen dataset from the lab to material for a hands-on undergraduate research course at CSU-San Marcos that has since expanded into three other universities.

    More

User Programs
Home › Featured Profiles › Project Management Office: Miranda Harmon-Smith

November 26, 2013

Project Management Office: Miranda Harmon-Smith

Miranda Harmon-Smith is in her ninth year at JGI, having started as a technician on the Sanger sequencing line before moving up, first to supervisor, then ultimately joining the PMO in 2012. It was her second “real” job after three years doing brain tumor research at the University of California, San Francisco and following her move west. She grew up in Nescopeck, Penn., a small town with six streets, three stoplights and a population of more than 1,000. Her interest in science was whetted, she says, when she was a second grader and her mother started attending nursing school.

Miranda Harmon-Smith

Miranda Harmon-Smith, JGI Project Management Office

“As a child I wanted to cure cancer,” she says. With that goal in mind, she attended Syracuse University as a pre-med biology major and did internships in the Pathology Department at Veterans’ Hospital where she performed several autopsies and in a neuropharmacology lab studying neurotransmitter pathways in rat models exhibiting schizophrenia. However, when she graduated from college, she found that her interests had shifted away from medical school and into research.

While in college, she dated Andre, one of the defensive tackles on the football team. Though she worked at the football office, they didn’t meet until after football season ended. They dated throughout college and even after he graduated and moved to Southern California while she started graduate school. Everything changed when she came out to visit over her summer break in 1998 when they eloped. Now 15 years later, though they’ve discussed having a more “official” wedding they haven’t gotten around to it.

The long-distance couple eventually made their separate ways to Walnut Creek a year after their wedding. Miranda worked at UCSF for three years before joining the JGI as a Livermore Lab employee.

Away from the office, Miranda is actively involved in the science fairs at her daughters’ school, bringing the JGI’s Build-A-Berry kit. She juggles the girls’ activities with family time as well as finding time for her own interests. One of them is serving as secretary on the board of the John Marsh Historic Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the California pioneer’s house in Brentwood. Through their efforts, the Marsh Creek State Park became the latest state park earlier this year. “As a child on trips with my parents, we always visited places of historical significance. When I moved to California I didn’t find as many historical landmarks,” she says. “I’m really passionate about this because this house is in our backyard and it’s part of our history.”

Between the Trust’s fundraising efforts, scheduling time for the kids’ soccer, basketball and even archery sessions, spending time with her husband and even finding time to cook dinner every night, Miranda says time management is a priority. “I’m always trying to figure out a way for us to do it all,” she says. “It’s about being organized and multitasking.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Featured Profiles

More topics:

  • COVID-19 Status
  • News
  • Science Highlights
  • Blog
  • Webinars
  • CSP Plans
  • Featured Profiles

Related Content:

Kelly Wrighton, Colorado State University

Kelly Wrighton JGI value cropped screencap

Tobias Erb, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Tobias Erb, MPI Marburg (Courtesy of Tobias Erb)

Colleen Hansel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

Colleen Hansel, fungal collaborator at WHOI

J. Chris Pires, University of Missouri

J. Chris Pires, University of Missouri

Cat Adams, University of California, Berkeley

Cat Adams, UC Berkeley

C. Titus Brown, University of California, Davis

C. TItus Brown, UC Davis on collaborating with the JGI
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • User Meeting
  • MGM Workshops
  • Internal
  • Disclaimer
  • Credits
  • Policies
  • Emergency Info
  • Accessibility / Section 508 Statement
  • Flickr
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Biosciences Area
A project of the US Department of Energy, Office of Science

JGI is a DOE Office of Science User Facility managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

© 1997-2023 The Regents of the University of California