Keynote Speakers

Dr. David A. Stahl, University of Washington

“Ammonia-oxidation: Past, present, future” 

Sunday, June 28, 7:20-8:00 PM

David Stahl completed graduate studies in microbial phylogeny and evolution with Carl Woese at the University of Illinois. Subsequent work with Norman Pace, then at the National Jewish Hospital in Colorado, involved early applications of 16S rRNA-based sequence analysis to the study of natural microbial communities. Stahl held appointments at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University before returning in 2000 to his alma mater, the University of Washington, Seattle, as professor in the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Microbiology. He is known for his work in microbial evolution, ecology, and systematics – receiving the 1999 Bergey Award and the 2006 Procter & Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He is fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. His main research interests concern the biogeochemistry of nitrogen and sulfur, and the complex communities that sustain the associated nutrient cycles. His laboratory was first to culture ammonia-oxidizing archaea, a group of mesophilic and thermophilic Archaea now believed to be the main mediator of this key process in the nitrogen cycle. He teaches, and has taught, multiple courses in environmental microbiology, was one of the co-founding editors for the journal Environmental Microbiology, and has served on many advisory committees.

Dr. Michael Wagner, University of Vienna

“Nitrifiers revisited: Unexpected physiologies and interactions”

Wednesday, July 1, 7:40-8:20 PM

Michael Wagner is head of the Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, the research Network “Chemistry meets Microbiology”, and of the Core Facility for Advanced Isotope Research at the University of Vienna. He received his Ph.D. from the Technische Universität Munich, Germany, in 1992 and subsequently worked as a Post-Doc with Dave Stahl at the Northwestern University, USA, before he returned to Munich as a group leader. In 2003, he became full professor of Microbial Ecology at the University of Vienna. Michael’s work spans a variety of microbial guilds including symbiotic chlamydiae, sulfate-reducing microbes as well as nitrifying bacteria and archaea and has led to the discovery and characterization of major new players among those groups.
His current research foci are ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea and the development of single cell tools for the genomic and functional characterization of bacteria and archaea in their natural environment. Michael has published more than 210 papers and is a Highly Cited Researcher (22.927 citations, H-index: 83). Michael has been the president of the International Society for Microbiology (ISME) from 2012 to 2014 and is currently its past president. He is a chief editor of the journal Environmental Microbiology, elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, a member of the American Academy of Microbiology, as well as a founding member of the European Academy of Microbiology.