Download the video

Lecture Abstract
Microbes can easily escape our attention - they are small and silent, yet their metabolic activity not only made Earth habitable for plants and animals, but is indispensable for the maintenance of life on Earth today. Despite the global importance of microbes, we are just beginning to appreciate the extent of their metabolic, evolutionary and ecological diversity. What factors influence the distribution of microbes in nature? How much can we disrupt communities of microbes before their seemingly robust activities collapse? This lecture will explore an underlying mechanism that influences the distribution of microbes in nature, namely, tradeoffs between metabolic power and efficiency. How these tradeoffs might alter the structure of microbial communities that influence activities as diverse as the flux of greenhouse gases from terrestrial ecosystems to the potential role of the ‘microbiome’ in communication amongst hyenas will be presented.

Thomas M. Schmidt is a professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University and co-director of the MBL’s Microbial Diversity Course since 2003. Dr. Schmidt’s laboratory explores the relationship between microbial ecology and physiology. In addition to recording microbial diversity, his research aims to understand the structure of these communities. Dr. Schmidt obtained a B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan, as well as an M.S. in environmental biology and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Ohio State University. He conducted post-doctoral research at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography with K.H. Nealson as well as at Indiana University in the lab of Norman R Pace. Among Dr. Schmidt’s numerous honors is an elected membership to the American Academy of Microbiology, and the designation of his 1990 New England Journal of Medicine paper on an approach to identifying uncultured pathogens as one of the 50 most important articles in microbiology in the past century by the American Society for Microbiology.

William Metcalf will introduce Dr. Schmidt. Dr. Metcalf is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Illinois and co-director of the Microbial Diversity Course at the MBL. Dr. Metcalf has over 25 years of microbiology research experience. His lab investigates the genetics and metabolism of Archaea, especially methane-producing organisms, and the metabolism of reduced phosphorus compounds in microorganisms. Dr. Metcalf earned a B.S. in Anthropology and Microbiology from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Purdue University. He continued his education with two post-doctoral appointments, one with Barry L. Wanner at Purdue University and an NRSA fellowship with Ralph S. Wolfe at the University of Illinois. Among Dr. Metcalf’s honors include serving as an editor of the journal Archives of Microbiology and holding the Division K Chair for the American Society for Microbiology between 2005 and 2006.