My name is Colton MacInnis and I am from Richland in southeastern Washington. I moved to the Palouse in 2021 to finish my B.S. in Biology at Washington State University. After finishing my B.S. in 2022, I started my Master of Environmental Science at the University of Idaho in the summer of 2022 working with Dr. Erik Coats. My research focuses on utilizing bacteria contained within cow manure to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates, which can be used as a bioplastic. My research is specifically focused on applying molecular biology methods to characterize and quantify the relative fraction of bacteria capable of producing PHA on fermented dairy manure. The aim is to translate this data into predictive relationships that can help guide engineering design and operation of the PHA system.