EEMB job candidate

Those of you who were in the CCS Biology Colloquium may remember that I mentioned EEMB would be hiring a new faculty member this quarter in the field of Biological Oceanography. Well the job ad went out, the applications were scrutinised and the short list was made. Over the next few weeks six candidates will visit campus and give a job talk. These are all open to the campus community and are a great chance to see someone give, hopefully, a great talk. These talks are generally pitched at a level that general biologists can understand whilst also trying to give some idea of the candidates depth in their specific field.

The first of these will be this Wednesday at noon in the MSI auditorium (ground floor of the MSI building) by Dr. Ian Hewson of Cornell University with the title:

Foe or friend? New perspectives on aquatic viral diversity and roles in host ecology enabled by community genomics

Viruses in aquatic ecosystems play crucial roles in microbial food webs, where they influence the abundance, productivity, and diversity of hosts. While most viruses are believed to infect bacteria, they may also infect other organisms, from other viruses to whales.  Despite a growing appreciation for their impacts on bacterio- and phytoplankton, there is little information on the diversity and activities of viruses arising from allochthonous sources, or those associated with aquatic metazoa.  The origin, decay and infectivity of allochthonous viruses was investigated in aquatic habitats. These studies have revealed that viruses move and infect hosts across biomes, and that their decay rates are similar to viruses originating from native hosts.  Investigations of viruses associated with sea fans, marine copepods and freshwater cladocerans have shown that viruses are widespread in aquatic metazoa, and that they may influence host population dynamics. The wide diversity of viruses in plankton and associated with metazoa in the absence of apparent disease raises interesting questions about the role of viruses in host ecology. Moreover, these studies have provided new perspective on the ecological significance of viruses in aquatic ecosystems.