James M. Tiedje Ph.D Director of the Center for Microbial Ecology Michigan State University

Research Interests:
Dr. Tiedje's research focuses on microbial ecology, physiology and diversity, especially regarding the nitrogen cycle, biodegradation of environmental pollutants and use of molecular methods to understand microbial community structure and function. His group has discovered several microbes that live by halorespiration on chlorinated solvents and is using genomics to better understand ecological functions, endemism and niche adaptation. He is particularly interested in the genomes of closely related populations where the organism's ecology is known so that a link can be made between genetic compositions to ecological outcomes. For this, his research team has (or has underway), the genome sequences of more than 10 Burkholderia, 10 Shewanella, three permafrost and one halorespiring microbe, providing an excellent resource for future ecological genomics research.
Educational Background:
Iowa State University, B.S., 1964, Agronomy 
Cornell University, M.S., 1966, Soil Chemistry 
Cornell University, Ph.D., 1968, Microbiology and Biochemistry

Selected Professional Activities:
He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Editor of Microbial and Molecular Biology Reviews. He has over 350 refereed papers including seven in Science and Nature. He shared the 1992 Finley Prize of UNESCO for research contributions in microbiology of international significance, is Fellow of the AAAS (the American Academy of Microbiology) and the Soil Science Society of America, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was President of the American Society for Microbiology in 2004-2005. Dr. Tiedje's past honors include: Shell Chemical Foundation Fellowship (1966 and 1967); Cornell University Senior Fellowship (1967 and 1968); Named outstanding young microbiologist by Eli Lilly Research Laboratories and received Career Development Research Award of $10,000 (1974); Sigma Xi Junior Award for Meritorious Research, MSU (1981); Fellow, American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America (1981); Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1985); Distinguished Faculty Award, MSU (1986); Distinguished Faculty Award, Michigan Assoc. of Univ. Governing Boards (1989); Soil Science Research Award, Soil Science Society of America (1990); Fellow, International Institute of Biotechnology (London) (1991); Applied and Environmental Research Award, American Society for Microbiology (1992); University Distinguished Professor (1992). 

Presentation Description
Molecular methods have transformed what we know about the microbiological world. We now know that it is much more extensive and diverse than we previously imagined, that that the genetic diversity within named species is very large making it difficulty for a species to be predictive at a functional level, that gene expression is even more diverse and that for some species horizontal gene exchange has spread traits broadly. Molecular tools, especially high throughput sequencing is providing incredible insight into this diversity and should lead to molecular tool signatures that will correspond to important functions and hence with practical potential. I will show examples of high throughput sequencing to study community composition and dynamic, for probing a greater depth diversity of genes important in biodegradation, and for determining expression differences among strains and among habitat conditions. Eventually, I predict we will have enough information to make at least some useful predictive relationships from molecular signature and to ecological function.