"A Microbial Perspective of Life on Earth"
Roberto Kolter, Harvard Medical School

Introduction by Daniel Buckley

Lecture Abstract:
From the origin of life - some three to four billion years ago - to the present, microbial life forms have had great influence in shaping the planet we all call home. As whole-planet issues such as climate change and global health become paramount in our everyday thinking, it is useful to ponder the future of life on Earth from the perspective of the invisible, yet incredibly abundant and diverse microbes. In this lecture I will give an overview of how microbial activities have shaped our planet and describe some recent studies that indicate how microbes may react to the current remarkable planetary changes that are being brought about by human activity.

Dr. Roberto Kolter is Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where he has been a faculty member since 1983 and Co-Director of Harvard’s University wide Microbial Sciences Initiative since 2003. Dr. Kolter has been an influential microbiologist for a period that spans four decades. As a graduate student in the 1970s he studied DNA replication. At Harvard, he has worked on antibiotic synthesis, bacterial starvation physiology, experimental evolution, bacterial biofilms, and chemical communication in the microbial world. Dr. Kolter has been involved in science teaching and policy worldwide. He recently served as the President of the American Society for Microbiology and now serves as Chair of its Public and Scientific Affairs Board. A native of Guatemala, Dr. Kolter earned his B.S. at Carnegie-Mellon University, his Ph.D. at University of California, San Diego and carried out post-doctoral training at Stanford University.

Dr. Daniel Buckley will introduce Dr. Kolter. Dr. Buckley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and a member of the Graduate Field of Microbiology at Cornell University. He is currently serving as co-director of the Microbial Diversity Summer Course at MBL. He received a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Michigan State University where he was a member of the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology. He received an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Biology through which he examined microbial mat communities which form in the intertidal zone of the Sippewissett Salt Marsh. His research examines the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that regulate microbial diversity and its impacts on soil processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Dr. Buckley was a student, teaching assistant, and lecturer in the MBL Microbial Diversity Course from 2000-2004.