What excites you about your work? 

“I am excited by how the mining of genome sequences is uncovering secrets about living systems that have been hidden for billions of years. As a microbiologist, the combination of genomics and technology has provided us with new and exciting ways to identify the building blocks of microbial systems, how they are assembled into networks, and consider how to mix or alter these blocks to build new capabilities. I think there is no better place to do this than UW-Madison with its talented students, staff and faculty, their history of cross-disciplinary collaboration, and facilities for lab, field and computational research.”

What do you hope to achieve? 

“Microbes are the original inhabitants of the Earth, performing chemical transformations for thousands of millennia. Just as carbon deposits eventually form diamonds, I predict genomic analysis of microbial activities will provide society with raw materials to generate 21st century advances in health, agriculture, the environment, today’s biotechnology industry and an emerging bioeconomy.”