Mike Manefield – JAMS Director and Treasurer
After completing a PhD in Australia in 2000 on the ability of algal metabolites to inhibit bacterial quorum sensing Mike spent four years in the UK developing and applying RNA stable isotope probing. After returning to Australia in 2004 he developed a team of experts in the reductive biodegradation of organohalides, the biotransformation of complex organic matter to methane and biofilm formation and control. He has acquired over $17 million in research funding, published over 125 articles and supervised 15 PhDs and over 20 BSc Honours students to completion.
Yolanda Plowman – JAMS Secretary
Tom Jeffries – Sydney JAMS
Dr. Thomas Jeffries is a microbial ecologist with a wide expertise in microbial biogeography, computational biology and ecogenomics. His research seeks to determine the environmental factors and ecological principles which drive patterns in microbial diversity in habitats spanning the ocean, dryland soils, contaminated sites and the human microbiome.
He completed his PhD. In 2011 at Flinders University where he was an “early adopter” of metagenomics to study the influence of salinity in structuring microbial communities in the Coorong Lagoon. His postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Technology Sydney utilized ecogenomic tools to study coastal marine microbiomes and the response of microbes to local oceanographic patterns and contamination inputs in Sydney Harbour. In 2014 Dr. Jeffries became a Research Fellow in the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University. His research here focused on applying metagenomics to soils and contributing to a global survey of dryland microbiomes and the response of soil microbiomes to aridification. Dr. Jeffries subsequently has joined the INDIGOV Expedition citizen science project which utilizes ocean going yachts to sample the world’s ocean microbiomes on unprecedented scales (http://www.indigovexpeditions.org/).
He was recently appointed Lecturer in Microbiology at Western Sydney University and is establishing his own research group. His most recent research focuses on applying ecological principles to a variety of habitats, including the human microbiome. He has published over 35 peer reviewed articles, was chair of JAMS and it’s inaugural KAKA award recipient, and is on the committee of the Australian Society for Microbiology.
Tom also enjoys the products of microbial metabolism, in particular those produced by fermentation.
Shang Yu Shueh – Sydney JAMS
My research interest is in plant molecular genetics and my PhD project is currently on developing a delivery method for plasmids carrying CRISPR/Cas9 into pollen grains to edit the germline genome. I completed my BSc (Hon I) at the University of Sydney; my Honours project involved the analysis of amoA-harbouring communities in the growth substrate of Agaricus bisporus treated with nitrification inhibitors and its effect on crop productivity. Prior to commencing my PhD I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Neil Wilson (USYD) in microbial ecology and Dr. Rosalie Daniels (USYD) in plant pathology. Outside of my research I am a mentor to HSC Science Extension high school students on their research projects, and I also host the monthly seminars at JAMS.
Hannah Sassi – Sydney JAMS
Hannah’s background is focused in public health and microbiology. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2016 with her PhD in Environmental Microbiology, and prior to that she studied Environmental Health Sciences for her Master and Bachelor’s degrees. Much of her research focused on isolating, tracking and controlling pathogens in the environment, as well as utilizing surrogate organisms to evaluate human health risk and subsequent interventions. After her PhD, she worked extensively on antimicrobial testing protocols and product development, focusing mainly on surface coatings and their environmental applications, before arriving in Sydney March 2017. Currently, Hannah is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney working on a range of projects including microbial ecology of water; host-pathogen (viral) interactions in the gut; and bacterial gene regulation (STEC) in the environment.
Hannah is responsible for events/outreach for JAMS. She also recruits speakers and shares host/MC responsibilities. If interested in speaking at JAMS, or organizing an event with JAMS, she can be contacted at hannah.sassi@sydney.edu.au.
Deepa Varkey – Sydney JAMS
Deepa completed her PhD at Macquarie University on Temperature adaptation in marine picocyanobacteria. Following her PhD she spent a year as a post-doc at UTS working on algal-bacterial interactions, and is now a research fellow at Macquarie University.
Deepa’s current research seeks to unravel the microbial community dynamics across ocean fronts using species distribution modelling, exploring microbial community gene expression using metatranscriptomics and building a molecular toolkit to genetically manipulate cyanobacteria. This will directly improve our ability to understand and predict the impacts of environmental perturbations such as climate change on the distribution and function of marine microbes, and the subsequent implications for marine ecosystems.
Emma Gagen – Brisbane JAMS Coordinator
Emma is an environmental microbiologist at The University of Queensland, focusing on understanding and harnessing microbial processes for accelerated rehabilitation of iron ore mine sites. Other research interests include microbial colonisation of meteorites, formation of seafloor iron-manganese crusts, microbiology of sulphur rich environments, and accelerating soil formation at open cut coal mines. When not in the lab there’s a good chance she’s hiking a mountain or exploring a forest.
Rob Hoelzle – Brisbane JAMS
Rob got his start in microbiology as an undergrad at Ohio State University, where he did his honours thesis on the biofuel-producing species Clostridium acetobutylicum. He then worked as a bioprocess engineer for the biofuel startup company Green Biologics before starting his PhD with AWMC at UQ studying mixed culture metabolism for producing biochemicals from waste. He’s now working as a postdoc at ACE still studying mixed culture metabolic interactions, but now in soil environments.
Steven Robbins – Brisbane JAMS
Steven Robbins is an Ohio native who moved to Brisbane in 2011 to obtain his PhD at UQ. There, he investigated the metabolic pathways used to generate coal seam gas (CSG) and the effects of hydrofracture stimulation on CSG microbial communities. His current work involves the use of genomic and metagenomic sequencing to characterize the microbial communities associated with corals and marine sponges to clarify their roles maintaining the health and stability of the holobiont as a whole.