Deputy Director, Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division, LBNL BIDS Research Affiliate

 

BIDS Research Affiliate Eoin Brodie grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and began his career studying the effects of agricultural intensification on plant and microbial biodiversity in native grasslands. He is a microbiologist and biogeochemist who works from molecular to ecosystem scales. He uses technologies to reverse-engineer complex microbiomes in natural and managed ecosystems. Combined with computational models to explore the principles of microbiome functioning, Eoin emphasizes translational ecology approaches to harness microbiomes for healthy soils and resilient ecosystems. He is currently Deputy Director of Berkeley Lab's Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division where he leads the Ecosystems Biology program and Earth's Microbial Engines Initiative. Eoin is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at UC Berkeley where he co-leads the Berkeley Lab/UC Berkeley - Joint Berkeley Initiative in Microbiome Sciences. He has published over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts and holds several patents and awards for microbiome related technology development.

Professor of Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (UCSD)
(Retired) Former Deputy Director of Agricultural Research & Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Chief Scientist for Biology and a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

 

Janet Jansson is Chief Scientist for Biology and a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, USA. Jansson has more than 35 years of experience in microbial ecology. After obtaining her Ph.D. in microbial ecology at Michigan State University (1988) she established a successful career in Sweden for 20 years and was Professor, Chair of Environmental Microbiology, and Vice Dean at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences prior to moving back to the United States in 2007. Jansson was a Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2007-2014 and an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark from 2012-2014. She moved to PNNL in 2014 and is currently coordinating several large research projects at PNNL that are focused on the impacts of environmental perturbations, such as climate change, on functions carried out by the soil microbiome. Jansson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the Washington State Academy of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also a recent recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has authored more than 250 publications and has been on the list of most highly cited researchers in the world for the past 4 out of 5 years. In addition, she is Past President of the International Society for Microbiology (ISME) and serves on numerous national and international advisory panels, including the National Academies of Sciences, U.S. National Committee for Soil Science

Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg

 

Studies in Microbiology, Universität Göttingen, 1967-1972
Diplom (Biology), Universität Göttingen, 1972
Dr. rer. nat (Biology), Freie Universität Berlin, 1972-1974
Postdoc and Junior Staff Member, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1974-1980
Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, 1980-1982
Leader of an independent Research Group, Otto-Warburg Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, 1982-1986
Leader of an independent Research Group at the Institute for Genebiological Research in Berlin, 1987-1992
Professor of Genetics, Institute for Genetics and Microbiology at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München, 1992-2001
Director and Head of the Department of Organismic Interactions at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, 2000 -2019
Professor of Genetics, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 2001-2019

CEO and Founder of Chestnut Bio Advisors

 

Dr. Marrone spent her 30+ year career focused on biological products for pest management and plant health, having started and led three companies. In August 2020, Dr. Marrone retired as CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations (NASDAQ: MBII), a company she started in 2006 and listed on NASDAQ (MBII) in 2013.  She remains on the Board of Directors and as an advisor. She is the treasurer of the Association for Women in Science, on the board of the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, is a Senior Fellow of the Arizona State University Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems and is a past alumni-Trustee of Cornell University.  She is an advisor or board member for several ag/food tech and life sciences companies, most founded or led by women. She has a B.S. in entomology with Honors and Distinction from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in entomology from North Carolina State University.

Professor Emeritus, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Dr. Pierson served as Professor of Food Microbiology and Safety at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 1970-2005, Head of the Department of Food Science and Technology 1985-1994, and Acting Superintendent of the Center for Seafood Extension and Research 1992-1994. He has published more than 150 referred research articles and seven books on food safety and quality in addition to presenting numerous workshops on HACCP and food safety management. He served as United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety 2002-2004, and Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety 2004-2005. In these positions he had responsibility for overseeing the Food Safety Inspection Service and the U.S. Codex Alimentarius office. In addition, he provided leadership as Chair of the USDA National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the US government Codex Alimentarius Policy Committee. From 2005 to 2008 he served as USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics.  In this position, he provided leadership and policy direction for the Agricultural Research Service; the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service; the Economic Research Service; and the National Agricultural Statistics Service. He was appointed Chairman of the General Administration Board of Graduate School, USDA 2006-2009; Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Graduate School USA 2009-2021; and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Public Service Education Institute.