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The Simons Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology Awards program was designed to support recently tenured, outstanding investigators in the field of microbial ecology in marine or natural freshwater systems. The program provided support for the establishment of a new research direction or an innovative expansion of current work. Microbes inhabit and sustain all habitats on Earth, and in both marine and freshwater systems, they capture solar energy, catalyze biogeochemical transformations of important elements, produce and consume greenhouse gases, and provide the base of the food web. Investigators were required to be active in basic research addressing fundamental questions in microbial ecology or microbial biogeochemistry in natural aquatic systems for the duration of the award. Research focusing on the microbiomes of animals, problems related to pollution, paleoceanography or geobiology was out of scope for this program.