She undertook both her graduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. The research focus of Dr. Gabrielsen is on studying the processes responsible for the variability and change of Arctic marine communities focusing on seasonality of microbial protists. The utilization of molecular tools in marine ecology including the recent development in sequencing technology has been a significant basis for much of Gabrielsens research. Her studies are mostly focused in the waters around Svalbard.