UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Keynote Speakers
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Steven Wilhelm, PhDSteven Wilhelm is the Kenneth & Blaire Mossman Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee. He completed both his BSc (honours, Genetics) and PhD (Plant Sciences) at the University of Western Ontario (Canada). After postdoctoral stints at the University of Texas and University of British Columbia, he joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee in 1998.
Research in the Wilhelm group focuses on the interplay between biogeochemistry and microbial communities in both marine and fresh waters. As early adopters of the tools of molecular biology, his group uses a gene-to-ecosystem approach to understand how aquatic systems function and are shaped by their microbial communities. Specific areas of interest include developing an understanding of virus ecology, trace element biogeochemistry and harmful algal blooms. Professor Wilhelm is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (ASM) and a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography(ASLO). In June of 2021, he was named the winner (along with Curtis Suttle) of the John H Martin Award from ASLO for their initial description of the “viral shunt”. In 2022, he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS) and in 2024 elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2024 he was also appointed a Trustee of the Marine Biological Association of the UK. |
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Emily Chase, PhDEmily Chase is an Assistant Professor at the University of Winnipeg, in the Department of Biology. She completed her BSc (Honours, Biology) at Dalhousie University and Acadia University. Her MSc (Biology) was completed at Acadia University, followed by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie/Horizons 2020 Fellowship PhD (Environmental Science, Oceanography) at Université Aix-Marseille. She carried out a Postdoctoral position at the University of Tennessee Knoxville before starting her current position. She a Reviewing Editor at ASM MicrobiologySpectrum, and a member of the Marie Curie Alumni Association.
The Chase lab is broadly focused on aquatic microalgae spanning both Eukaryotic and Bacterial domains; single-celled eukaryotic algae and cyanobacteria, and viruses such as polinton-like viruses, virophages, RNA viruses, and giant viruses – to name a few ! Dr. Chase’s past work includes investigating evolution and ecology of viruses as they interact with hosts, exploring virus diversity of coastal and freshwater environments, and applying bioinformatics tools to “big data” to ask functional questions. The Chase lab is currently beginning a sequencing time-series of Lake Winnipeg, a shallow large lake system coined “Canada’s Sickest Lake”. Lake Winnipeg experiences frequent and intense algal blooms, however little information has been gathered on the lake’s microalgae, and no information on virus diversity, host-virus interactions, or their environmental influence has been recorded. The goals are to understand the influence of viruses on this environment, and to identify key algae-virus interactions and species of the lake system, while developing collaborations and large publicly available datasets for large lake enthusiastic around the globe. |