Curriculum Vitae for Kenneth H. Nealson (September 24, 2017)
Personal Information:
Dr. Kenneth H. Nealson
Wrigley Professor of Environmental Sciences
University of Southern California
Department of Earth Sciences, SHS 560
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Phone:213-821-2271
Email:
Mobile:323-614-3773
Education:
BS BiochemistryU. of Chicago1965
MS BotanyU. of Chicago1966
Ph.D. Microbiology U. of Chicago1969
Postdoc Harvard Univ.1972
Employment:
UCSD Scripps Inst. Oceanog. (Asst. to Full Prof)1973 - 1985
U. Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Distinguished Prof)1985 – 1997
Caltech/JPL (Adjunct Professor & Senior Scientist)1997 – 2001
USC (Wrigley Chair of Environmental Sci.)2001 – present
Honors and Awards:
NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1970 - 1972
Guggenheim Fellowship for Sabbatical Leave, 1981
Elected Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology, Nov. 1993
NRL Distinguished Visiting Researcher Award, Jan., 1996
NASA Special leadership award: JPL ($2,500 prize), June, 2000
Cecil and Ida Green Fellow of the Carnegie Inst. of Washington, 2000
Proctor and Gamble Award for Environmental Micro. Amer. Soc. Micro., 2003
Selman Waksman Outstanding Educator Award, Soc. Industrial Micro, 2004
Elected President: International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME), 2007
David C. White Award for Research and Mentoring, Amer. Soc. Micro, 2010
Elected Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2012
Elected Fellow of American Assoc. Adv. Science (AAAS), 2013
Reuters top 1% cited Scientists in my field for (2014)
USC Raubenheimer Award for Teaching and Research (2016)
National and International Service:
Member, Mars Exploration Science Working Group, NASA 1998-present
Member, Science Advisory Board, Max Planck Inst. Marine Microbiology,
Bremen, Germany – 2007 - 2013
Member, Science Advisory Board, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., La Jolla, CA –
2004 - present
Member, Board of Trustees, J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA,
2004 - present
Member, Science Advisory Board, Japanese Marine Science & Technology
(JAMSTEC) – 2007 - 2013
Member, Chikyu IODP International Board, JAMSTEC – 2013 – present
Member Science Team: Curiosity Mission (NASA, JPL). 2014-2015
Ph.D. Students Trained in my Laboratory (30 total):
Aguilar, C. (UW Milw.), Barge, L. (Caltech/JPL), Bretschger, O. (JCVI); Burdige, D. (U. So. Carolina), Chellamuthu, P. (current), Cohn, Dan (Cedars Sinai, LA), Dunlap, P.(U. Mich.); Flood, B. (current), Frantz, C. (Current); French, S. (Univ. Va), Harris, H.W. (current); Haygood, M. (Oregon Res. Inst.); Hodson, R. (UGa), Hsu, L. (postdoc, NRL), Karl, David, (U. Hawaii), Krause, B. (Millipore), Leisman, G. (UNC); Liu, J. (Business), McCrow, J. (JCVI), Moser, D. (DRI), Ruby, E.G. (U. Wisc), Salas, E. (Rice Univ.); Schelble, R. (Exxon), Scott, J. (Dartmouth), Tebo, Brad (Oregon Res. Inst), Vidal, F. (UNAM, Mexico City) Waters, Michael (NIST)
Presently, I have 2 graduate students in my laboratory at USC
Bonita Lam – MEB (4th year)
Casey Barr – Earth Science (3rd year)
Postdoctoral Fellows Trained in my Laboratory (30 total):
Akimoto, A. (USC); Bakermans, C. (Penn St. Altoona), Bermudes, D. (Yale), Bleakley, B. (So.Dak. Univ); Cohen, Y. (Hebrew Univ), Cox, Lea (UCSB), El-Naggar, M. (USC), Frackman, S. (Pharmacia), Gaidos, E. (U. Hawaii), Kan, JJ (USC), Kepkay, P. (Dalhousie), Kostka, J. (GeorgiaTech), Lanoil, B. (Univ. Calgary), Li, R. (USC); Look, S. (NIH),Myers, C. (Med. Coll. Wisc.), Popa, R. (Portland State U.), Reimers, C. (Oregon St. U),Rosson, R. (Biotech. Resources), Rowe, R. (USC); Saffarini, D. (UW Milw.), Schmidt, T. (Mich.St.U), Souza, V. (U. Lerida, Sp.), Stein, L. (U. Calgary), Sun, H. (DRI)
Presently I have 4 postdoctoral scholars in my laboratory at USC.
Dr. Reed Li from Taiwan University
Dr. Annette Rowe from Cornell University
Dr. Lina Bird from MIT
Dr. Roman Barco from USC
Recent Successes:
Dr. Moh El-Naggar – postdoc – now Professor of Physics, USC
Dr. Rohit Bhartia – Ph.D. student – now senior scientist at JPL,
PI of an instrument that will fly on the Mars 2020 Mission.
Dr. Jeff McLean – Ph.D. student – now Asst. Professor, Univ. Washington
Dr. Akihira Okamoto – postdoc – now Asst. Professor, Tokyo University
Dr. H. Wayne Harris, Ph.D. student – now postdoc at LLNL
Invited Lectures:
Over the past 30 years, I have chaired three different Gordon Conferences (GRCs), and given on the average, one talk at a GRC each year. In addition, I present 6-8 seminars at universities or Science Institutes each year and 1-3 plenary or keynote lectures at national and international meetings each year.
2014/15 Lectures:
August 15, Plenary Speaker, Soc. Indus. Microbiology, San Diego, CA.
“Electromicrobiology and Bacterial Behavior”
August 30, Keynote Lecture, Nobel Workshop on Biofilms, Stockholm. –
“Surface Electrochemistry and Biofilm Formation”
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
April 14, 2014: Invited Pleanary Speaker at: International Symposium on Microbial
Electrochemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, China
April 15, 2014: Invited Special Lecture at Tsinghua Environmental Forum,
Tsinghua University, Tsinghua, China
April 16, 2014: Special Seminar: Recent Developments in Microbe/Surface Interactions
Tokayo University, Electrochemistry Department, Tokyo, Japan
May 22, 2014: Plenary Lecture: Metals and Microbes (session chair),
“Bacterial Electricians and their metal interactions”
American Soc. Microbiology Meeting, Boston, MA
August 22, 2014Keynote Lecture, Int. Soc. Microbiol. Soc.,
“Electromicrobiology as an emerging field”, Montreal, CA
June 2015. Keynote Lecture. “New Windows of Metabolism”
Japan Forum on Ocean Science
July 2015. Invited Lecture: Electromicrobiology
NanYang Technical University, Singapore
July 2015. Plenary Lecturer, ICBIC meeting, Beijing, China
October 8, 2015. Royal Society of Medicine; Special Lecture, London, UK
November 14, 2015. TED talk, Electromicrobiology, Palm Springs, CA
2015/2016 Lectures:
December 7, Keck Inst. Space Science, Methane on Mars, Invited talk
July 13, 2016. SCELSE (Singapore): Invited Lecture: Electromicrobiology
July 14, 2016, SCLSE: Invited Lecture: Extreme Environments
July 19, 2016, Univ. Tokyo: Plenary Lecture – Electromicrobiology Workshop.
Funding:
1. Office of Naval Research: Mechanisms of Electron Transport ~ $100K/year for KHN
I am a Co-I on this grant, which is headed by Professor Paul Weiss from UCLA
2. Air Force Office of Scientific Research: Extracellular Electron Transport in the
Human Microbiome and the natural environment.
This is a three-year grant, beginning in August of 2014. ~ $200K/year for KHN
I am a Co-I on this grant, which is headed by Professor Steven Finkel at USC
3. NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Subsurface (Deep) life ~ 100K/year for KHN
I am a Co-I on this 5-year grant (in its second year), Prof. Jan Amend (USC) is PI
4. National Science Foundation: Studies of hyperalkaline life. ~ 50K/year for KHN
I am a Co-I on this 3 year grant beginning 9/1; Dr. Shino Suzuki (JCVI) is PI
5. NASA Instrumentation Grant. Mars Instrument Development -- ~ 50K/year for KHN
I am a Co-I on this grant,; A former Ph.D. student, Dr. R. Bhartia is the PI
This is a 5-year grant to prepare and test an instrument to be launched on the 2020 mission to Mars!
Teaching:
Process of Change in Science. Thematic Option Core103: 40 students
Geobiology. BISC 483; Undergrad/Grad course: 25 students
Adaptation & Evolution.BISC 485; Undergrad/Grad course. 25 students
Growth and Maintenance of Microbes (special course taught with G.J. Kuenen) on demand – usually teach this every second year to a small group of graduate students.
For the fourth year, I taught in the undergraduate honors course curriculum (Thematic Option: Core 103 series). My course (42 undergraduates) is called “The Progress of Change in Science”, and uses my connections to NASA to bring home science to these non-majors. We go to JPL, and discuss major missions, beginning with the view of the world by Aristotle, and ending with the Mars Rovers now on the surface of Mars. Through this journey, we learn to distinguish good science from bad, and to understand how “the truth” changes as technology provides new ways to measure and analyze data. The course has received rave reviews from the students, and I enjoy it immensely.
I was chair of the Ph.D. Committee of several students who finished their degrees and who have moved on to other positions:
Dr. Jeff McLean: Geobiology Thesis – Assistant Professor, Univ. Washington
Dr. H. Wayne Harris: Geobiology Thesis – Postdoc at Lawrence Livermore Labs
Dr. Rohit Bhartia: Electromicrobiology Thesis – Senior Scientist, Jet Propul. Lab
Dr. Prithiviraj Chellamuthu: Thesis – Bioremediation – Postdoc, USC
I acted as chair for two students who were working towards their Ph.D. degrees during the 2013/2014 Academic year. Listed below are the students, with their area of expertise.
Ms Bonita R. Lam, second year Marine Sciences Major – MEB
Mr. Casey Barr, first year Earth Scienes major – ES
I also presented lectures in several courses taught
I had 4 undergraduate researchers in the lab (as I usually do), who were active in doing projects during the year. These students are mentored by graduate students and/or postdocs, which provides wonderful training for all who are involved. I also had one summer researcher (undergrad from Caltech) in the NSF-sponsored REU program. He did a great job, as did a graduate student (Bonita Lam) and a postdoc (Annie Rowe) who mentored him.
In addition, I presented lecturesfor colleagues in the departments of: Biology, Marine Biology, Earth Science, and Physics, as well as a special tutorial to students at the Annenberg School, and a special lecture to the Engineering undergraduates., and have lab demonstrations for two other courses:
Dr. Robert Baker’s interdisciplinary science course
Dr. K. C. Cole’s course in science writing
Finally, I gave the “Honors Colloquium Lecture” to the bioengineering students.
In the summer, I gave lectures in the International Geobiology Course on Catalina Island, was an invited lecturer at the Marine Biology Laboratory (in Woods Hole) course in Microbial Diversity, and Lectured at the International Biofilms Course at NTU in Singapore.
In addition to the USC teaching, I lectured in courses for Dr. Dianne Newman at Caltech, taught a seminar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and was an invitedInstructor at both the International Biofilms course at NTU in Singapore, and the International Geobiology Course at Catalina Island (USC).
Major Accomplishments of the Nealson Lab:
- Quorum sensing
My thesis work and postdoctoral studies were focused on the regulation of light emission by bioluminescent bacteria. This led to the publication of papers proposing a control system called autoinduction (later changed to quorum sensing). In the subsequent 10 years, my laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography accomplished the following:
- isolation and identification of the active autoinducer molecule,
AI-1 (homoserine lactone)
- demonstration that AI-1 was active from the outside of the cell
- cloning of the AI genes and expression in E. coli (luxR & luxI)
- publication of the AI model
- Metal cycling and biogeochemistry
After the work on autoinduction was “finished”, I moved to the area of geobiology and metal cycling, isolating microbes that were active in the oxidation and reduction of manganese. During this work, the microbe Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 was isolated, and shown to be capable of growth with solid metal oxides as an electron acceptor (breathing rocks as !!). This introduced the process of extracellular electron transport (EET), which took nearly 20 years to elucidate to a level that “made sense” biochemically. It is now clear that EET is far more common than was originally imagined, and that very elegant biochemical strategies have been designed to move electrons from the cytoplasm to the cell exterior where they can take part in extracellular redox chemistry. Working with many colleagues, a great deal of progress was made:
- identification of the outer membrane proteins involved in EET
- identification of the genes coding for these proteins
- elucidation of the complex gene regulation controlling EET
- study of the behavior of microbes as it is related to EET
- Electromicrobiology
The metal cycling work led to another area I call electromicrobiology. It was discovered that instead of solid metal oxides, Shewanella could use properly charged (poised) electrodes as electron acceptors for respiration (breathing electrodes !!). This led to an entire set of projects in which Shewanella (and other bacteria) were used to power fuel cells and do many other things. The concept that electron flow can occur to electrodes has grown to include the study of corrosion, biofilm electron flow, devices for metal bioremediation, and many other uses. It also became clear from the study of microbial fuel cells that electrons could be taken up (as a source of energy) from properly charged electrodes, leading to another area of active research (powering microbial metabolism with electricity!). In particular, we have focused on the importance of surface charge (potential) for attachment, growth and biofilm formation by microbes. Electromicrobiology is attracting a lot of attention these days!
Ongoing Areas of Work in the Nealson Lab:
- Electromicrobiology
We continue to work on various aspects of electromicrobiology, with studies of gene regulation of electricity producing communities, and the use of electrodes to isolate heretofore uncultivated microbes. We are using both anodic (electron accepting) and cathodic (electron donating) electrodes to stimulate the growth of microbes, many of which have not previously been cultivated. We also are continuing our studies of microbial behavior in response to charged surfaces. Finally, in collaboration with colleagues in the department of physics at USC, we are studying the role of conductive “nanowires” produced by cells, and often see connecting two or more cells together.
- Life at high pH
We have been involved for about 5 years in a project at a serpentinization site in northern California, where the conditions are so harsh (pH = 12; Eh = -500 mV; “no” electron acceptors; very low Na, CO2, and organics; very high Ca++) that we expected little or no life. We have characterized the community diversity of these waters, and seen many very unusual microbes that are now being studied in terms of their genomic information. Metagenomic studies are allowing the construction of the genomes of the few major taxa, revealing some extremely unusual (perhaps unique) metabolic abilities.
- Life in the Deep Subsurface
A new area of work in the lab involves the characterization of microbes from the deep subsurface: work that is only now beginning in earnest in the Nealson lab. This work is taking place as part of a NASA Astrobiology Institute grant at USC, and involves using electromicrobiology approaches to cultivate new organisms and to characterize the environment.
- Mars science
I am a member of the Mars Science Laboratory science team, discussing results of the MSL experiments and measurements, and a co-author on several publications from data obtained during the Curiosity Mission.
I also am a Co-PI as a member of the SHERLOC group to build and deploy an instrument (deep UV spectrometer with Raman) for the 2020 Mars rover mission.
Publications:
My laboratory has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, and I have edited 3 published books. I haveabout 15 patents submitted, and many reports from summer courses. (H- Factor = 107) Publications from the past 10years (2007/2017) are listed below. High profile journals are in Bold Print.
2007:
- Rusch, D.B., Halpern, A.L., Heidelberg, K.B., Sutton, G., Williamson, S., Yooseph, S., Wu, D., Eisen, J.A., Hoffman, J.M., Howard, C.H., Foote, C., Dill, B.A., Remington, K., Beeson, K. Tran, B., Smith, H., Baden-Tillson, H., Stewart, C., Thorpe, J., Freemen, J., Andrews-Pfannkoch, C., SVenter, J.E., Li, K. Kravitz, S., Heidelberg, J.F., Utterback, T. Rogers, Y-H. Falcon, L.I., Souza, V., Bonilla-Rosso, G. Eguiarte, L.E., Karl, D.M., Sathyendranath, S., Platt, T., Bermingham, E., Gallardo, V., Tamayo-Castillo, G., Ferrari, M.R., Strausberg, R.L., Nealson, K., Friedman, R., Frazier, M., and Venter, J.C. The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Northwest Atlantic through Eastern Tropical Pacific. PLoS Biology5(3):e77.doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050077.
- Boldareva, E.N., I.A. Bryantseva, A. Tsapin, K. Nealson, D.Yu. Sorokin, T.P. Tourova, V.A. Boichenko, I.N. Stadnichuk, and V.M. Gorlenko. 2007. The new alkaliphilic Bacteriochlorophyll a-containing bacterium Roseinanatronobacter monicus sp. No. from the hypersaline soda Mono Lake (California, U.S.). Microbiology. 76:82-92.
- Davis K.J., A. Lüttge, and K. H. Nealson. 2007. Calcite and dolomite dissolution rates in the context of microbe-mineral surface interactions. Geobiology 5:191-205
- Rabaey, K., J. Rodriquez, L. Blackall, J. Keller, P. Gross, D. Batstone, W. Verstraete, and K. H. Nealson. 2007. Microbial eology meets electrochemistry: electricity-driven and driving communities. The ISME Journal 1:9-18.
- Nealson, K.H. and J.C. Venter. 2007. Metagenomics and the global ocean survey: what’s in it for us, and why should we care. The ISME Journal 1:185-187.
- Popa, R., P.K. Weber, J. Pett-Ridge, J.A. Finzi, S.J. Fallon, I. D. Hutcheon, K.H. Nealson, and D.G. Capone. 2007. Carbon and nitrogen fixation and metabolite exchange in and between individual cells of Anabaena oscillarioides. The ISME Journal 1:354-360
- Bretschger, O., A. Obraztsova, C.A. Sturm, I.S. Chang, Y.A. Gorby, S.B. Reed, B.E. Culley, C.L. Reardon, S. Barua, M.f. Romine, J. Zhou, A. A. Beliaev, R. Bouhenni, D. Saffarini, F. Mansfeld, B-H. Kim, J.K. Fredrickson, and K.H. Nealson. 2007. Current production and metal oxide reduction by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 wild type and mutants. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73:7003-7012.
2008:
- Pinchuk, G.E., C. Ammons, D.E. Culley, S-M. W. Li, J.S. McLean, M.F. Romine, K.H. Nealson, J.K. Fredrickson, and A. Beliaev. 2008. Utilization of DNA as a sole source of phosphorus, carbon, and energy by Shewanella spp.: ecological and physiological implications for dissimilatory metal reduction. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74:1198-1208.
- Manohar, A.K., O. Bretschger, K.H. Nealson, and F. Mansfeld. 2008. The polarization behavior of the anode in a microbial fuel cell. Electrochem. Acta. 3508-3513.
- Nealson, K.H. 2008. A Korarchaeote yields to genome sequencing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105: 8805-8806.
- Manohar, A.K., O. Bretschger, K.H. Nealson, and F. Mansfeld. 2008. The Use of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) in the Evaluation of the Electrochemical Properties of a Microbial Fuel Cell. Bioelectrochemistry 72:149 - 159.
- Kus, E., K. Nealson, and F. Mansfield. 2008. The effect of different exposure conditions on biofilm/copper properties. Corrosion Science 49: 3421-3427
- Kus, E., K. Nealson, and F. Mansfeld. 2008. The bacterial battery and the effect of different exposure conditions on biofilm properties. Electrochem. Acta. 54:47-52.
- Waters, M.S., C.A. Sturm, M.Y. El-Naggar, A. Luttge, F.E. Udwadia, D.G. Cvitkovitch, S.D. Goodman, and K.H. Nealson. 2008. In search of the microbe/mineral interface: quantitative analysis of bacteria on metal surface using vertical scanning Interferometry. Geobiology 6:254-262.
- Fredrickson, J.K., M.F. Romine, A.S. Beliaev, J.M. Auchtung, M.E. Driscoll, T.S. Gardner, K.H. Nealson, A.L. Osterman, G. Pinchuk, J.L. Reed, D.A. Rodionov, J.L.M. Rodrigues, D.A. Saffarini, M. H. Serres, A.M. Spormann, I.G. Zhulin, and J. M. Tiedje. 2008. Towards Environmental Systems Biology of Shewanella. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 6:592-603
- El-Naggar, M., Y. A. Gorby, W. Xia, and K.H. Nealson. 2008. The Molecular Density of States in Bacterial Nanowires., Biophys. J. 95:10-12.
- Borg, L.E., DesMarais, D.J., Beaty, D.W., Aharonson, O., Benner, S.A., Bogard, D.D., Bridges, J.C., Rudney, C.J., Calvin, W.M., Clark, B.C., Eigenbrode, J.L., Grady, M.M., Head, J.W., Hemming, S.R., Hinners, N.W., Hipkin, V., MacPherson, G.J., Marinangeli, L., McLennan, S.M., McSween, H.Y., Moersch, J.E., Nealson, K.H., Pratt, L.M., Righter, K., Ruff, S.W., Shearer, C.K., Steele, A., Sumner, D.Y., Symes, S.J., Vago, J.L., and Westall, F. 2008. Science priorities for Mars sample return. Astrobiology 8:489-536.
- Bhartia, R., W.F. Hug, E.C. Salas, R.D. Reid, K. K. Sijapati, A. Tsapin, W. Abbey, P.G. Conrad, K.H. Nealson, and A.L. Lane. 2008. Classification of Organic and BiologicalMaterials with Deep UV Excitation. Appl. Spectroscopy 62:1070-1077.
- Schelble, R.T., J.A. Hall, K.H. Nealson, and A. Steele. 2008. DNA perseverance of microorganisms exposed to silica: an experimental study. Geobiology. 6:503-511.
- Biffinger, J.C., J. Pietron, O. Bretschger, L. J. Nadeau, G.R. Johnson, C.C. Williams, K.H. Nealson, and B.R. Ringeisen. 2008. The influence of acidity on microbial fuel cells containing Shewanella oneidensis. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 24:906-911.
2009: