iFAST Micro. Ecol.

https://nature.berkeley.edu/firestonelab/

Mary Firestone is a soil microbial ecologist who has worked extensively on the roles of soil microorganisms in terrestrial ecosystems including microbial mediation of nitrogen oxidation and reduction processes, adaptation of microbes to the desiccation characteristic of arid and semi-arid soils, and C- and N-based interactions among plant roots and soil organisms. She earned degrees  in microbiology and soil science from Michigan State University and joined the faculty at University of California, Berkeley in 1979 where she was active in faculty governance, chairing the faculty senate in 2008.  She is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Soil Science Society of America, American Academy of Microbiology, Ecological Society of America, and American Geophysical Union.

http://www.kbs.msu.edu/robertson

G. Philip (Phil) Robertson is University Distinguished Professor of Ecosystem Science in the Dept. of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences and the WK Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) at Michigan State University. He directs the USDA’s Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) site at KBS, has been science director for the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, and for 25 years directed NSF’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site at KBS. His research focuses on nitrogen and carbon dynamics, greenhouse gas fluxes, and land management solutions to climate change. He received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 1980 from Indiana University and his B.A. in 1976 from Hampshire College.

https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/rice-charles/

Charles (Chuck) Rice joined K-State in 1988 and is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the Vanier University Professorship at Kansas State University.  He is a Professor of Soil Microbiology in the Department of Agronomy.  He has received over $35 million in research grants, has advised over 50 graduate students and 18 post-doctorates and has over 225 publications.  Dr. Rice has also served in numerous capacities with professional societies, including President of the Soil Science Society of America in 2011. Internationally, he served on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to author a report on Climate Change in 2007 and 2014 and was among scientists recognized when that work won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2020, Dr. Rice received the title of “National Associate” of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Rice chairs the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

https://www.pnnl.gov/people/janet-jansson

Janet Jansson is Chief Scientist for Biology and a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, USA. Jansson has more than 35 years of experience in microbial ecology. After obtaining her Ph.D. at Michigan State University (1988) she established a successful career in Sweden for 20 years and was Professor, Chair of Environmental Microbiology, and Vice Dean at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences prior to moving back to the United States in 2007. Jansson was a Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2007-2014 and an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark from 2012-2014. She moved to PNNL in 2014 and is currently focused on the impacts of climate change on the soil microbiome. Jansson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the Washington State Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has authored more than 250 publications and has been on the list of most highly cited researchers in the world for the past 4 out of 5 years. She is Past President of the International Society for Microbiology (ISME) and serves on numerous national and international advisory panels, including the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Committee for Soil Science, and the National Academy’s Decadal Survey for NASA.

https://www.ou.edu/ieg

Jizhong Zhou is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Presidential Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, and Director for the Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. He is also an Adjunct Senior Scientist at Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and an Adjunct Professor at School of Environment, Tsinghua University. He has authored numerous publications, with total citations of > 55,000 and H-index of 125 (Google Scholar), on microbial genomics, genomic technologies, microbial ecology, molecular evolution, bioinformatics, systems microbiology, network ecology, and ecosystem modeling, in the fields of climate change, groundwater bioremediation, wastewater treatments, bioenergy, and theoretical ecology. He was recognized as a global influential researcher by all three major complementary metrics: (i) 2018-2021, Global Highly Cited Researcher (top 0.1%) in microbiology, (ii) 2020 World’s most cited researcher (99.9% percentile) across all science & engineering fields, and (iii) most highly cited researcher (H-index > 100) according to Google Scholar Citations. He received the 2019 ASM Award for Environmental Research for recognizing an outstanding scientist with distinguished research achievements in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in 2014 – DOE’s scientific award established by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959, R&D 100 Award in 2009 as one of 100 most innovative scientific and technological breakthroughs, Federal Laboratory Consortium (Southeast) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, 2005, and Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2001. He is an Editor-in-Chief for mLife, a senior Editor for ISME J, an Associate Editor for Microbiome, and a former Senior Editor for mBio and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He is a Fellow of International Water Association, American Academy of Microbiology, Ecological Society of America, and American Association for Advancement of Science.

Website at Univ. Copenhagen

Kristian Koefoed Brandt currently leads the environmental microbiology research group at Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen and is the head of the educational program Water and Environment at the Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research (SDC) in Beijing, China. Microbial ecotoxicology and ecology in agroecosystems and the environmental dimension of antibiotic resistance represent current research areas. He holds a PhD degree in microbial ecology (1998) from Aarhus University, Denmark. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow (1998-2001) at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (Denmark) and as a visiting scholar (2001-2002) at the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University (USA) and since then as an associate professor at KVL (2003-2006), University of Copenhagen (since 2007), and Sino-Danish Center (since 2013).

https://www.abe.iastate.edu/adina-howe/

Adina Howe is an associate professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University.  She leads the Genomics and Environmental Research in Microbial Systems (GERMS) Laboratory.  Her research focuses on understanding microbial interactions in agricultural and environmental systems to sustainably manage our land and water resources.  She earned a B.S. and M.S. in engineering at Purdue University and a PhD from the University of Iowa.  She was a postdoctoral research fellow at Michigan State University with Drs. C. Titus Brown and James Tiedje, followed by a position as a research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.  Her research is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture; the National Science Foundation; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research.  She enjoys hiking with her family and two dogs, traveling, and food.