Juergen Wiegel recently obtained strong external support from the Air Force and from the NSF to study bacteria that live on the very edge of conditions suitable for life; these bacteria are termed extremophiles.  Some of these bacteria cope with multiple high stress conditions of salt, alkali, and temperature.

Mark Schell was awarded two, three year contracts to study Burkholderia/Ralstonia from biodefense perspectives.  These are multi-investigator projects of immediate concern to US defense and biosecurity.

In another defense-related project, The Army Research Office recently awarded Eric Stabb a grant on inhibitors of bacterial communication (quorum sensing) processes.  If bacterial communication can be disrupted, many detrimental processes ranging from biofouling to human diseases could be thwarted.

Anne Summers is the team leader of a new NSF-supported study on plasmids as agents of genetic transfer to create biodiversity important to agriculture and to ecology.  The project will use plasmids obtained from a wide variety of sources, thus it involves other Microbiology faculty including Tim Hoover, Jan Mrazek, Joy Peterson, Barny Whitman, and Juergen Wiegel.

Tim Hoover was honored at a Faculty Recognition Banquet for receiving the 2007 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advisor Award.  Tim also received an Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award for his commitment to involve and support undergraduate students in research projects.

Jan Mrazek received the Oak Ridge Association of Universities Ralph Powe Junior Faculty Award.  The award is designed to enrich research and professional growth of young faculty.  Jan was also given funding to match the Oak Ridge award from the Vice President for Research Office at UGA.

Juergen Wiegel (together with Mark Farmer of the Cell Biology Department) received a teaching award for their Freshman seminar course on the Origins of Life.  This was one of the only three courses selected for recognition (university-wide) of the more than 100 freshman seminar courses taught.

The Bergeys Award has been presented by the Bergeys Manual Trust annually since 1979 in recognition of outstanding contributions to bacterial taxonomy.  In addition to a cash prize the award includes travel to a meeting of the awardee's choice.  The Board of Bergey's Manual Trust voted to present the award for 2007 to Prof. Wiegel for his contributions to the systematics of thermophilic and alkaliphilic microorganisms found in extreme environments.

Dan Colley was recently named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene of the United Kingdom.  He was honored for a distinguished career in tropical medicine research.  Dan has won many awards and prizes and has served on a number of important international advisory committees.  Dan has made timely contributions to our knowledge of the immune response to Schistosomiasis mansoni in experimental animals and in humans.  He has also conducted highly-acclaimed research on Trypanosoma cruzi infection.   He is the author of approximately 200 publications and has trained a number of productive investigators and practioners in the field of tropical medicine.

Anna Karls and Joy Doran Peterson will serve as ASM Division Officers.  Anna will Chair the Genetics and Molecular Biology Division this year, and Joy (as current Chair-elect) will Chair the Fermentation and Biotechnology Division in 2008.  Duncan Krause is the new Alternate Councilor for Division G of ASM, and Ellen Neidle was appointed an Editor for the ASM journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.