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Keynote Speakers |
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Ajit Varma,
Director of the Amity Institute of Herbal and Microbial Studies, Noida,
Uttar Pradesh, India and former Professor of Microbial Technology,
Jawaharial Nehru University, New Delhi. Ajit’s research has involved
applications of mycorrhizal fungi. Overall, he has published nearly two
hundred articles and fourteen books associated with microbial technology.
He has recently begun work as the editor of twenty-five volumes on Soil
Biology. Ajit has received numerous international awards, including
fellowships with the Alexander von-Humboldt program in Germany, the
National Science Foundation, and the Indo-Czechoslovakia exchange program.
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Heddi Abdelaziz, Associate Professor,
UMR INRA/INSA de Lyon, Biologie Functionelle, Insectes at Interactions,
Villeurbanne, France. Heddi’s research focus has been the physiological
roles of intracellular bacteria within insects such as the weevil. He
originally entered this symbiotic research field through doctorate work
with Professor Paul Nardon. Heddi and colleagues have shown that weevils
harbor not only Wolbachia bacteria but a gamma-proteobacterium,
Sitophilus oryzae. He is involved in several collaborations,
including investigating the interplay between the insect immune system and
the genetic regulation of the bacteria’s virulence so as to shed light on
host-bacterial molecular interactions involved in the initial steps of
symbiosis establishment. |
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Ute Hentschel , Group Leader, Research
Center for Infectious Diseases, Wurzburg, Germany. Ute received her
doctorate from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute where she worked with
Horst Felbeck. Applying a number of molecular biology techniques, she
continues to investigate bacterial association in marine sponges. She has
been on numerous research ocean cruises and field studies. Ute is on the
editorial board of Marine Biotechnology and is organizing a symposium in
Wurzburg for next year, “Novel agents against infectious diseases.” |
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Thomas Miller , Professor of
Entomology, University of California, Riverside, USA. Tom has had a long
and distinguished research and teaching career at Riverside. He has been
particularly focused on agents that can control insect populations,
particularly and recently symbiotic controls. Tom is a Fellow of the Royal
Entomological Society and the recipient of the 2003 J. Gregor Mendel Gold
Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has served as Chairman of the
Board of the Entomological Society of America and served on the editorial
boards of the Journal of Insect Science and the Journal of
Asia-Pacific Entomology. |
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Luis P. Villarreal , Professor at the
University of California at Irvine and Director of the Center for Virus
Research, ORU, USA. Luis has recently published an important book through
American Society for Microbiology (ASM) press, Viruses and the
Evolution of Life. He is a leader in studying the implications of
viruses on life forms, with particular interests in the linkage of viruses
to symbiotic systems over time. He has served as chair or keynote at
numerous meetings, including the Gordon Conference on Animals Cells and
Viruses, the Noble Foundation Conference on Virus Evolution, and the
International Congress on Nidoviruses in Italy. He has collaborated with
numerous researchers in work and published in journals such as Gene
Therapy, Virology, the Journal of Molecular Evolution, and the
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. |
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Matthias Horn , Assistant Professor,
Department of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Austria. Matthias
and colleagues have discovered a novel bacterial phylum associated with
sponges called “Poribacteria.” The bacteria show compartmentalization
features usually associated only with eukaryotes. He also continues work
on a group of endosymbionts related to chlamydiae. For example, work has
recently been completed on the first complete genome sequencing of a
protozoan endosymbiont. Recent research has appeared in Nature, Science,
Applied Environmental Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Letters, the
European Journal of Protistology, and Microbiology. He is an
accomplished teacher and lecturer and serves on the organizing committee
of this 5-ISS Congress. |
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Colleen Cavanaugh, Edward C. Jeffrey
Professor of Biology, Harvard University, USA. Colleen focuses on the
chemosynthetic symbiosis, particularly in habitats such as deep sea
hydrothermal vents. Recent efforts have explored RubisCO and the evolution
of autotrophy. She has been widely recognized for her research and
teaching quality, including the Phi Beta Kappa teaching prize and the
International Recognition of Professional Excellence Prize from the
Ecology Institute of Oldendorf/Lufe in Germany. She has been a Harvard
Junior Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. |
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Gopi Podila, Professor and Chair of
Biology, University of Alabama, USA. Gopi’s research has involved the
functional genomics of plant-microbe interactions, as well as fungal
genomics and plant molecular biology and biotechnology. He has been
particularly active in the molecular biology of mycorrhizae associated
with poplars and aspens. His work also examines the impacts of greenhouse
gases on plant-fungal communities. He has over 80 research publications,
including in New Phytologist, Plant and Soil, and
Mycorrhiza. He served as the Chair of the New Frontiers in Mycorrhiza
Research of the 7 th International Mycological Congress in Norway, and is
currently a governing councilor of the International Symbiosis Society.
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Mary E. Rumpho, Professor of Marine
Studies and Biochemistry, University of Maine, USA. Mary’s research
focuses on the biochemical, molecular and developmental studies of the
symbiotic “solar-powered” sea slug, Elysia chlorotica. This
mollusk sequesters and retains intracellularly chloroplasts from the alga,
Vaucheria litorea, enabling the seas lug to live much a like a
green plant or alga for several months. Elysia serves as a unique
model for studying potential lateral gene transfer, symbiosis in
evolution, and photosynthesis. She is currently completing the full
sequencing of the chloroplast genome of Vaucheria litorea. Her
presentation on kleptoplasty at 4-ISS in Halifax was highly received. |
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Marc Andrè Selosse, Professor,
University Montpellier II, France. Marc Andre's main research focuses on
mycorrhizal symbiosis, but he is recognized also as an excellent symbiosis
theoretician. Key research themes have been the evolution of
acholorophylly in forest orchids, the role of microflora in Quercus
ilex-dominated forests, and the structure of basidomycete mycorrhizal
populations. He is an outstanding instructor, including at the Ecole
Normale Superieure in Lyon and the University of Paris VI. He has written
a book on symbiosis in French, La Symbiose: Structures et functions, role
ecologique et evolutif (Vuibert, Paris, 2000) and has over forty refereed
papers in a wide variety of journals. |
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Lynn Margulis , Professor of Biology,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA. The primary inspiration for
many researchers and educators who are now "hooked on" symbiosis, Lynn is
one of the acknowledged pioneers in modern evolutionary thinking and
symbiotic research. From her seminal "Origin of Mitosing Cells" published
in the Journal of Theoretical Biology thirty five years ago to today, she
has interwoven findings, ideas, questions into a profound tapestry that
greatly enriches the field of biology. Here Ph.D. in Genetics was from the
University of California, Berkeley. She has authored or co-authored more
than 20 books and 100 refereed papers.
She is a selected member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Russian
Academy of Natural Sciences. She received the highest honor awarded to
American scientists, the National Medal of Science from President William
Clinton. She is an original proponent and authority on James Lovelock's
"Gaia Hypothesis," and consistently works to show the importance of
symbiogenesis on earth.
Her commitment to science education has resulted in
numerous published audio-visual materials and curricula, including as the
co-founder of the international Microcosmos program with the current ISS
President. She is a governing councilor in the ISS
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Angela Douglas, Professor of Biology,
University of York, United Kingdom. Angela is one of the most accomplished
leaders in the symbiosis field. Her research is mainly concerning the
nutritional physiology of aphids with their bacterial symbionts. Her
laboratory applies molecular/genomic and physiological/ biochemical
techniques to investigate nutritional interactions in symbiotic systems,
microbial diversity and abundance of symbionts in insects, and how aphids
thrive on their nutritionally unbalanced diet of phloem sap. Her current
research involves the integrative physiology of sugar and amino acid
utilization by the aphid-bacterial symbiosis and the impact of plant
phloem composition on aphid pest populations on potato crops. She is a
governing councilor of the International Symbiosis Society. |
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Margaret McFall-Ngai, Professor of
Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
USA. Margaret has made profound contributions to symbiosis research
through her long-time investigations on the Euprymna scolopes
(squid) – Vibrio fischeri (bacterium) relationship. Her lab uses
the squid-vibrio light organ system as a model to pose questions such as
how does the host recognize its specific symbiont? How are environmentally
rare bacteria harvested from the host’s habitat during the onset of
horizontally transmitted symbioses? How is the symbiont’s population
regulated? Margaret has published in many of the world’s most significant
journals. She is a governing councilor of the International Symbiosis
Society. |
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Todd Lajeunesse, Assistant Professor of
Marine Biology, Florida International University, USA. Todd is centrally
involved in the dynamics of the coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis. His work
has involved discerning and characterizing of the specific array of
Symbiodinium species. Todd’s research feeds a more complete and
necessary understanding of the influence of enhanced global warming on
coral reef ecology: What factors promote and prevent change sin
coral-dinoflagellate partner combinations? What are the physiological
limits of these symbionts and under what conditions? How have coral-algal
symbioses responded to previous climate changes? |
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Wolfgang Löffelhardt, Professor of
Biochemistry, University of Vienna, Austria. Wolfgang has contributed
greatly to our understanding of the symbiotic evolution of plastids. He
has particularly focused on the autotrophic protist, Cyanophora
paradoxa and its reduced cyanobacterial organelles, known as
cyanelles. Presently, his lab continues to show the details of protein
translocation into and within cyanelles. He and his colleagues continue to
characterize as many components of the unique carbon dioxide concentrating
mechanism of C. Paradoxa. Wolfgang is a Vice-President of the
International Society for Endocytobiology (ISE). |
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Takema Fukatsu, Professor of Zoology, University of
Tokyo, Japan. Takema is one of the world’s foremost investigators in
insect-microbe interactions. He is a professor in the Department of
General Systems Studies within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at
the University of Tokyo. His research has particularly focused in recent
years on the impact of Wolbachia and Buchnera with host
insects, including evolutionary relationships, transcrip tome analysis,
and physiological influences. He has over seventy publications including
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science, Applied
Environmental Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, among others.
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