Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Washington, DCJune 6, 2012 Geoffrey L. Smith, Ph.D., Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Head, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, has been bestowed the 2012 GlaxoSmithKline International Member of the Year Award, recognizing exemplary leadership in the international microbiological community. His nominator, Molly Hughes of the University of Virginia, says Smith is "internationally recognized as an outstanding scientist due to his numerous original contributions to the field of virology and the role he plays as a leader in a number of scientific institutions."

Smith received his B.Sc. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Leeds, and his Ph.D. from the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, while working with influenza virus in the laboratory of Alan Hay. He then held a Wellcome Trust Fellowship at the National Institute for Medical Research, before becoming a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Bernard Moss. There, together with Michael Mackett, he developed vaccinia virus as an expression vector and established the use of genetically engineered viruses as live vaccines, a principle applied subsequently to other viruses and microorganisms.

After returning to the United Kingdom, Smith continued working with poxviruses at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the Imperial College London. He is now Head of the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, where he studies the interactions of poxviruses (particularly vaccinia virus) with the host cell and immune system. His research group has contributed to the current understanding of how these poxviruses replicate and spread and how they interfere with innate immunity, findings that provide an "important contribution to not only the field of poxviruses, but have also had widespread implications, particularly in the field of immunology," says Hughes.

"Smith has played an important role in promoting microbiology and advising on science policy both nationally and internationally," says Michael Oldstone of Scripps Research Institute. His sweeping service record demonstrates his commitment to the international community. Smith is currently President of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, Chairman of the WHO Advisory Committee for Variola Virus (smallpox) Research, Chairman of the Royal Society Committee for Scientific Aspects of International Security, a member of the Royal Society Science Policy Advisory Group and the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council, and a Governor of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. He is a Corresponding Member of the Gesellschaft fr Virologie, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Institute of Biology, the European Academy of Microbiology, the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), and the Royal Society. In 2003 he became Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of General Virology. He was awarded the Feldberg Foundation Prize in Medical and Biological Science to promote Anglo-German Friendship.

"Smith has been a tireless contributor to the science of microbiology in general and virology in particular throughout his career. His ability to maintain an enormous and global variety of research, teaching, and service activities and do each expertly is awe-inspiring," says Richard Condit, University of Florida.

###

To view Dr. Smith's biosketch, please visit: http://www.asm.org/index.php/awards-grants/current-glaxosmithkline-international-member-of-the-year-award-laureate.html

The GlaxoSmithKline International Member of the Year Award will be presented during the 112th General Meeting of the ASM, June 16 - 19, 2012 in San Francisco, California. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental wellbeing.

Here is the original post:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Geoffrey L. Smith

Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Washington, DCJune 6, 2012 The 2012 Moselio Schaechter Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Jayaraman Gowrishankar, Ph.D., Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), and leader of the Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics, CDFD, Hyderabad, India. This award, named in honor of Professor Moselio Schaechter, former ASM President, honors an ASM member who has shown exemplary leadership and commitment towards the substantial furthering of the profession of microbiology in research, education or technology in the developing world. Gowrishankar is honored for "his dual responsibilities as the Director of the DNA diagnostics facility as well as the leader of a team of scientists, and also for his direct contributions to basic microbiology," states his nominator, Laszlo Csonka, Purdue University.

Gowrishankar received his undergraduate degree in medicine at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, South India. In 1979, he took a step back from a future career as a physician and followed a love of basic research. He pursued graduate studies in bacterial genetics under Jim Pittard at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He received his Ph.D in 1983, and returned to India to begin his independent research career as a Scientist and Group Leader at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. In 2000, Gowrishankar moved to the CDFD, where he has been Director for the last six years and head of the Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics.

Research in Gowrishankar's laboratory has covered different aspects of the physiology and genetics of Escherichia coli, including osmoregulation, the occurrence of spontaneous mutations in non-dividing cells, arginine export, replication fork progression, and factor-dependent transcription termination. With about fifty papers published in the peer-reviewed journals (most with no more than two co-authors), his has been one of the most successful E. coli labs outside of the developed world. In addition, several of his students have gone on subsequently to establish their own independent research programs in microbiology. His group was also the first in India to patent and earn royalties from a genetically modified organism, in the form of an engineered E. coli strain for salt-induced overproduction of recombinant proteins.

Gowrishankar is also known for his many contributions outside of the laboratory. "While continuing his research at CDFD, he also plays a key role as Institute Director to set up the diagnostic systems for DNA tests of heritable genetic disorders, and moreover to provide young scientists with the chance to train in bacterial molecular genetics," explains Akira Ishihama, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. Csonka elaborates, "CDFD houses approximately twenty scientists conducting basic research in diverse areas ranging from bacterial physiology to bioinformatics and structural biology, whose research is overseen and guided by Gowrishankar."

Over the years, Gowrishankar has been engaged in science-related public activities in India and beyond, including participating in training programs on intellectual property protection and exploitation, contributing to the Indo-Japan Collaborative Program on Modern Biology, and publishing a variety of articles on matters of science policy. In a letter in ASM News in 1994, he spoke of the inequity inherent in the imposition of page charges for papers published by groups from the developing world, and appealed for their waiver. He is an elected Fellow of the major Science Academies in India as also of the International Molecular Biology Network for Asia and the Pacific Rim, and has received several major national awards and honors in recognition of his achievements in science.

Max Gottesman, Columbia University Medical Center, summarizes: "I have been struck by his quick intelligence and his encyclopedic knowledge of scientific literature. For me, he has been a source of many useful suggestions. He is open and interactiveI have the utmost admiration for Gowrishankar, and support him without hesitation."

###

To view Dr. Gowrishankar's biosketch, please visit: http://www.asm.org/index.php/awards-grants/current-moselio-schaechter-distinguished-service-award-laureate.html

Excerpt from:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Jayaraman Gowrishankar

Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Washington, DCJune 6, 2012 Stephen J. Giovannoni, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, has been honored with the 2012 USFCC/J. Roger Porter Award. This award recognizes outstanding efforts by a scientist who has demonstrated the importance of microbial biodiversity through sustained curatorial or stewardship activities for a major resource used by the scientific community. It honors the memory of J. Roger Porter and his remarkable contributions to science. Giovannoni is honored for "more than a decade of leading the field of marine microbiology in successfully bridging the divide between culture-based and culture-independent studies, with a foot solidly in both camps," says nominator Norman Pace, University of Colorado.

Giovannoni received his B.A. in biology from the University of California, San Diego, where his first experience with bacteria was raising cells and isolating photosynthetic reaction center proteins for physicist George Feher. He then earned his M.A. in biology from Boston University, where he studied under Lynn Margulis, and continued on to the University of Oregon to receive his Ph.D. in biology. Here he worked with Richard Castenholz to isolate and describe novel thermophilic bacteria from Yellowstone National Park. After graduating, he joined Pace's research team (then at Indiana University) to develop molecular techniques for studying microbial ecology, where Pace says Giovannoni participated in "the earliest culture-independent forays into the natural microbial world of the oceans."

Giovannoni next accepted a faculty position at Oregon State University, where he remains today. His research focuses on microbial diversity, genomics, and ecology in oceanic ecosystems. "As he established his own lab, he was the first to use PCR with universal sequencing primers to conveniently access environmental rRNA genes," explains Pace. Giovannoni developed PCR methods to clone rRNA genes from microbial communities and identified many cosmopolitan, uncultivated bacterioplankton clades. Following up on this work, his research team focused on the Sargasso Sea. They described in rich detail the seasonal patterns and stratification of planktonic microbial communities, including a group of proteobacteria that became known as SAR11. "His work on the SAR11 cladethe most abundant group of bacteria in the global oceanhas served as a model for marine bacterial physiology, ecology, and evolution, including novel growth strategies such as genome reduction," describes David Karl, University of Hawaii. Kenneth Nealson further explains, "the cultivation and characterization of the Pelagibacter group [a member of the SAR11 clade], has had a huge impact on our understanding of marine microbiology. His approach was to use comparative genomic approaches to characterize these organisms, probing the nature of their ability to thrive in the nutrient-limited ocean. His papers on genome streamlining are classics in the fieldonly someone with Giovannoni's background and insight could accomplish this."

In 2000, Giovannoni founded the High Throughput Culturing Laboratory (HTCL) at Oregon State University with the aim of culturing globally important marine bacterioplankton. New technologies developed by the HTCL led to the successful cultivation of many oligotrophic strains of bacteria and more than 27 genome sequences. In 2011, his research team reported that SAR11 likely share a common ancestor with mitochondria. Their current research is focused on understanding SAR11 metabolism, and how these cells interact with marine dissolved organic carbon.

In addition to his teaching duties, Giovannoni serves as a Founding Editor for Annual Reviews of Marine Science and Associate Editor for The ISME Journal and Environmental Microbiology. His outstanding contributions have been honored with many awards, including the Gilfillan Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science, the Milton Harris Award for Exceptional Achievement in Microbiology and Sugihara Young Faculty Research Award from Oregon State University, and the Emerging Scholar Award from Phi Kappa Phi. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

###

To view Dr. Giovannoni's biosketch, please visit: http://www.asm.org/index.php/awards-grants/current-usfccj-roger-porter-award-laureate.html

The USFCC/J. Roger Porter Award will be presented during the 112th General Meeting of the ASM, June 16 - 19, 2012 in San Francisco, California. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental wellbeing.

Go here to see the original:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Stephen J. Giovannoni

Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Washington, DCJune 6, 2012 Lilliam Casillas-Martnez, Ph.D., has been honored with the 2012 Carski Foundation Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award. Casilla is a Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao (UPRH). One of Casillas' strongest passions is to educate and help women from low income homes, or "invisible students," as she calls them. Because there are so few Latin American women in positions of power, she feels that mentoring young women is crucial to their development. Nominator and former student Lorraine D. Rodriguez-Rivera, now a Ph.D. candidate in the Laboratory for Food Microbiology and Pathogenesis of Foodborne Diseases at Cornell University, describes Casillas' effect on others: "Casillas has had a profound impact on the professional development of many women in Puerto Rico. As my undergraduate advisor, she provided me with valuable tools for my career. I would like to become a professor and inspire minority students the way she inspired me towards becoming a professional in microbiology."

Casillas received her B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. There she studied Bacillus subtilis under the tutelage of Peter and Barbara Setlow. Upon completion of her doctorate, Casillas attended the Microbial Diversity Course in Woods Hole and she continues to conduct research in emerging fields such as geomicrobiology and metagenomics. Once at the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao, Casillas started a productive collaboration in geomicrobiology with Pieter Visscher from the Integrative Geosciences Department at the University of Connecticut.

One of Casillas' proud accomplishments is the NSF-funded Cabo Rojo Salterns Microbial Observatory, where undergraduate students learn how to conduct in situ studies. To date, more than one hundred Puerto Rican students have received hands-on training in techniques in geomicrobiology and metagenomics. In addition to working on research projects, undergraduate students in Casillas' lab are required to design outreach activities to implement during visits to local public schools. Her laboratory is well known for its active participation in science fairs, open houses, and the development of workshops for local high school teachers.

Casillas' nomination was supported by Mayra Cancel, a high school teacher from the Puerto Rico public school system. "Casillas' efforts have changed my perception of the community of researchers in Puerto Rico and have strengthened their ties with teachers of the public system education," explained Cancel. "Education is basic for human progress, individually and collectively. Casillas' workshops for teachers strengthen the collective of research groups in the schools of our community and have served as motivation to reaffirm our confidence in higher education and its commitment to educational principles."

With the support of several agencies, Casillas has been able to combine undergraduate education with research projects such as characterizing novel microorganisms, constructing metagenomic libraries from various extreme environments in Puerto Rico, and screening for novel antibiotics. In the last decade, more than fifty undergraduates from her laboratory have continued graduate studies. "Casillas' success as a teacher and a mentor is evident in the triumphs of her students. Her down-to-earth style of mentoring, her charismatic personality and her availability to her students allowed us to approach her whenever advice was needed," described a former undergraduate student, Angel Casanovanow a Ph.D. candidate in the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "She was more than my undergraduate professor; she is a teacher from whom I have learned and acquired many skills that have allowed me to succeed in my quest for knowledge."

In her short career, Casillas has received several honors and has been invited to serve as a member on several review panels for agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture. She has been the main speaker in several local and international conferences and has published more than twenty scientific publications (two in educational journals) and three book chapters. More recently, she was awarded the 2010 Arturo Carrion Lecture Award from ASM's Puerto Rican Chapter for her excellence in teaching Microbiology in Puerto Rico. Casillas is already building a legacy through the achievement and values she instills in her students, as well as her overall impact on the Puerto Rican community.

###

To view Dr. Cassillas' biosketch, please visit: http://www.asm.org/index.php/awards-grants/current-carski-foundation-distinguished-undergraduate-teaching-award-laureate.html

View post:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Lilliam Casillas-Martinez

Public release date: 6-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Washington, DCJune 6, 2012 E. Peter Greenberg, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, has been honored with the 2012 D.C. White Research and Mentoring Award. Recognizing distinguished accomplishments in interdisciplinary research and mentoring in microbiology, this award honors D.C. White, who was known for his interdisciplinary scientific approach and for being a dedicated and inspiring mentor. As stated by his nominator, former graduate student Heidi Kaplan, now at the University of Texas Medical School, "Greenberg's career is marked by outstanding success in what continues to be recognized as interdisciplinary research in quorum sensing. In addition, his mentoring qualities are legendary. He has made an indelible impact on the scientific careers of his students and postdoctoral fellows, and most have gone on to be leaders in microbiology."

Greenberg received his bachelor's in Biology from Western Washington University, and his master's in Microbiology from the University of Iowa. He then went on to the University of Massachusetts, where he earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology. "During that period, Greenberg isolated the first extremophilic spirochete, the salt-loving, vividly red bacterium S. halophila," explained Jared Leadbetter, Caltech. "It was also then that he identified his career-long interest in how bacteria sense the world in which they live, and how they employ such information in behavior and transcription." He next became a NIH postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, before joining the faculty at Cornell University and eventually the University of Iowa. In 2005, Greenberg returned to the Pacific Northwest at the University of Washington.

Greenberg has spent his scientific career studying the social behavior of bacteria. He has focused on the coordination of activities in groups of bacteria, with an emphasis on cell-to-cell communication and a phenomenon that is known as quorum sensing. "Greenberg pioneered the quorum-sensing field and has remained one of its leaders. He made a seamless transition from working on bacterial luminescence, a microbiological oddity, to focusing on Pseudomonas pathogenesis, a system that has critical implications on human health," expounded Kaplan. Bacterial communication controls virulence in a variety of pathogenic bacteria, and has thus become a target for the development of new therapeutic strategies. Bacteria have also become models for studies of selection for and evolution of cooperative behavior.

Greenberg's work has been recognized by his election as a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology. "Greenberg's seminal work on quorum sensing and biofilms has revolutionized the way we think about bacterial social behaviors, and the development of 'sociomicrobiology' as a field has impacted virtually every bacteriology researcher in the world," says Marvin Whiteley, University of Texas, Austin. "Greenberg and the students he's mentored reached several important milestones first," adds Leadbetter. "Among them: the first genes cloned from a spirochete, the first evidence for glycosylated proteins in a prokaryote (a highly contentious result at the time that has since proven to be a widespread feature of other bacteria proteins), andperhaps most seminallythe first demonstration in any bacterium of how rotational changes in multiple flagellar motors are coordinated in spirochete cells, ie. through electrical, not chemical, means."

Greenberg's excellence in mentoring has had a lasting impact on his former students, and his valuable guidance has defined the careers of many. "He created an environment that challenged everyone to meet their maximum potential and greatly impact their field," Kaplan said. Whitely summarizes, "Greenberg is an intuitive scientist and encourages creative thinking by his students/post-docs. Importantly, he encourages each individual to follow their interests, whether it be research and/or teaching in academic or industrial settings."

###

To view Dr. Greenberg's biosketch, please visit: http://www.asm.org/index.php/awards-grants/current-dc-white-award-laureate.html

The D.C. White Research and Mentoring Award will be presented during the 112th General Meeting of the ASM, June 16 - 19, 2012 in San Francisco, California. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental wellbeing.

Follow this link:
The American Society for Microbiology honors E. Peter Greenberg