Microbial Biology Graduate Faculty
Tamar Barkay, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Maryland
Role of microorganisms in transformations of metals in the environment
(Dr. Barkay is planning to retire in the summer of 2020)
William J. Belden, Associate Professor of Animal Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Dartmouth
Chromatin-remodeling; Circadian rhythms; non-coding RNA
Joan W. Bennett, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. Chicago
Genetics and biosynthesis of fungal natural products; fungal genomics; fungal volatile organic compounds
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Simon Fraser (Canada)
Algal evolution; genomics; endosymbiosis; red tides; plastids; tree of life
Kay D. Bidle, Professor of Marine & Coastal Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. California (San Diego)
Marine microbiology; microbial physiology and mortality; virology; gene expression; molecular ecology and evolution
Martin Blaser, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, RWJMS; M.D. New York University School of Medicine
Human microbiome and biology of bacterial persistence in mammalian hosts
Jeffrey M. Boyd, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Utah State
Microbial biochemistry and molecular genetics; biofilm formation and disassembly, metal ion homeostasis, iron-sulfur protein maturation, and Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis.
Yana Bromberg, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Columbia
Bioinformatics approaches to protein function prediction and genome variation analysis
Sara Campbell, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Health, SAS; Ph.D. Florida State
Exercise, cholesterol metabolism, obesity, functional foods and chronic disease
George M. Carman, Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor of Food Science, SEBS; Ph.D. Massachusetts
Biochemistry, molecular genetics, and metabolism of membrane lipids
Theodore Chase, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. California (Berkeley)
Alcohol dehydrogenases and pyruvate decarboxylases; enzymology
Michael Chikindas, Professor of Food Science, SEBS; Ph.D. Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms (Russia)
Microbiology; genetics; biotechnology; probiotics; antimicrobial peptides
Bruce B. Clarke, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Director, Center for Turfgrass Science; Ph.D. Rutgers
Turfgrass pathology; soilborne diseases; disease forecasting and control; mycology
Lori Covey, Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, SAS; Ph.D. Columbia
Human immunoglobulin switch recombination in response to T cell-B cell interactions
Katherine Dawson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University
Geosciences/Biogeochemistry
G. Charles Dismukes, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, SAS; Ph.D. Wisconsin
Biological and chemical methods for renewable solar-based fuel production, catalysis, photosynthesis, metals in biological systems and tools for investigating these systems
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Human microbiome structure and function, early development and health, and effect of perturbations by common urban practices
Siobain Duffy, Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, SEBS; Ph.D. Yale
Emerging viruses; experimental evolution; bioinformatics
Richard H. Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, SAS; Ph.D. Harvard
Mechanism and regulation of bacterial transcription; small-molecule inhibitors of bacterial transcription
Nicole Fahrenfeld, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, SoE; Ph.D. Virginia Tech
Waterborne pathogens, antibiotic resistance, microbial source tracking, water and wastewater treatment
Huizhou Fan, Professor of Pharmacology, RWJMS; Ph.D. University of Manitoba, Canada
Chlamydial biology with emphasis on host-microbial interaction and development of antiinfectives
Donna E. Fennell, Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Cornell
Microbial processes for bioremediation and waste management
Dina Fonseca, Professor of Entomology, SEBS; Ph.D. Pennsylvania
Infectious diseases; mosquito control; evolutionary ecology
Robert M. Goodman, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, SEBS, and Executive Dean, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Ph.D. Cornell
Diversity and function of microorganisms in natural environments
Max M. Häggblom, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Helsinki (Finland)
Environmental microbiology and microbial ecology; biodegradation and bioremediation
Bradley I. Hillman, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Director for Research and Senior Associate Director, NJAES; Ph.D. California (Berkeley)
Molecular, population, and evolutionary biology of viruses and fungi
Peter C. Kahn, Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Columbia
Protein folding and subunit assembly; structure modeling; ligand interactions; hydration in biological systems
Lee Kerkhof, Professor of Marine & Coastal Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. California (San Diego)
Marine microbiology; molecular ecology; microbial population dynamics
Eric Klein, Assistant Professor of Biology, Camden; Ph.D. Pennsylvania
Bacterial pathogenesis and microbial adhesion
Donald Y. Kobayashi, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. California (Riverside)
Plant bacteriology; host-pathogen interactions; molecular biology
Jerome J. Kukor, Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS, and Dean, Graduate School New Brunswick; Ph.D. Michigan
Biochemistry and genetics of microorganisms involved in biodegradation
Arek Kulczyk, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. University of Cambridge, UK
Cryo-EM structure determination and single-molecule studies of cancer-associated protein targets involved in synthesis and repair of human mitochondrial DNA. Development of novel correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) methods.
Adam Kustka, Associate Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Newark; Ph.D. Stony Brook
Phytoplankton trace metal physiology and biogeochemistry
Eric Lam, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. California (Berkeley)
Programmed cell death; stress tolerance; microbe association with duckweeds
Kwangwon Lee, Associate Professor of Biology, Camden; Ph.D. Texas A&M
Circadian clock/light regulation; fungal genetics; fungal ecology; systems biology
Thomas Leustek, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. Rutgers
Molecular biology and biochemistry of sulfur and amino acid metabolism in microorganisms
Desmond Lun, Professor of Computer Science, Camden; Ph.D. MIT
Synthetic biology; systems biology; biological signal processing; network science
Gediminas Mainelis, Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Cincinnati
Biological aerosols
Karl Matthews, Professor of Food Science, SEBS; Ph.D. Kentucky
Genetic understanding of virulence and survival mechanisms of food-borne pathogens
Kenneth McKeever, Professor of Animal Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Arizona
Equine exercise and environmental physiology; neuroendocrine control of cardio-renal function
Peter J. Morin, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, SEBS; Ph.D. Duke
Community ecology; Microbial ecology
Bryce E. Nickels, Professor of Genetics, SAS; Ph.D. Harvard
Mechanisms of transcription; regulation of bacterial gene expression
Peter Oudemans, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. California (Riverside)
Fungal plant diseases; population biology of fungi
John R. Reinfelder, Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Stony Brook
Ecophysiology of marine phytoplankton, biogeochemistry of mercury and other trace elements, sulfur biogeochemistry and acid mine drainage
Diana E. Roopchand, Assistant Professor of Food Science, SEBS; Ph.D. McGill University
Interactions between dietary components, gut microbiota, and intestinal epithelium
Jeffra K. Schaefer, Assistant Research Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Rutgers
Microbial biogeochemistry of toxic and essential trace metals; microbial ecology
Donald W. Schaffner, Distinguished Professor of Food Science, SEBS; Ph.D. Georgia
Predictive food microbiology; quantitative microbial risk assessment
Konstantin Severinov, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, SAS; Ph.D. Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Genetic and biochemical analysis of RNA polymerases from E. coli and yeast; site-directed modification of proteins
Ann M. Stock, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, RWJMS; Ph.D. California (Berkeley)
Bacterial signal transduction: protein structure/function and system design principles
Judith Storch, Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Columbia
Cellular lipid transport, structure and function of lipid transport proteins, intestinal lipid transport and systemic energy metabolism
Paul Takhistov, Associate Professor of Food Science, SEBS. Ph.D. Notre Dame
Understanding the physico-chemical interactions between multiphase matrices with biotic and abiotic materials
Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Associate Research Professor of Marine & Coastal Sciences, SEBS. Ph.D. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California (San Diego)
Phytoplankton molecular ecophysiology; host-virus interactions; molecular and biochemical basis for environmental sensing
Alvaro Toledo, Assistant Professor of Entomology, SEBS. Ph.D. Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Molecular, biochemical, and microbiological analysis of tick borne pathogens with a focus on Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease)
Nilgun E. Tumer, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. Purdue
Molecular biology of plant viruses; virus replication; disease resistance; plant transformation
Andrew K. Vershon, Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, SAS; Ph.D. MIT
Regulation of gene expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Costantino Vetriani, Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D.; Rome La Sapienza (Italy)
Deep-sea microbiology; extremophiles; molecular ecology; adaptations to extreme environments
James White, Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. Texas
Fungal systematics; ecology of fungi; fungal-plant symbioses
Lori A. White, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology; Ph.D. Dartmouth
Molecular mechanisms of xenobiotic-induced pathologies
Nancy A. Woychik, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, RWJMS; Ph.D. Wisconsin
Non-coding RNAs and disease; bacterial pathogenesis
Nathan Yee, Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Notre Dame
Geomicrobiology and geochemistry
Lily Y. Young, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sciences, SEBS; Ph.D. Harvard
Anaerobic microbial metabolism of contaminant chemicals; microbial biodegradation; bioremediation
Ning Zhang, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, SEBS; Ph.D. Louisiana State
Fungal evolution, biodiversity and genomics; molecular detection of fungal pathogens on grass
Liping Zhao, Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Nanjing Agricultural University
Gut microbiota in human nutrition and health
Gerben Zylstra, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry & Microbiology, SEBS; Ph.D. Michigan
Molecular and biochemical analysis of biodegradation pathways