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Donohue elected president of American Society for Microbiology

February 15, 2013

University of Wisconsin–Madison bacteriology professor Timothy J. Donohue has been elected president of the American Society for Microbiology.

Photo: Timothy Donohue

Timothy Donohue (left), professor of bacteriology and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), makes comments during a meeting at the Microbial Sciences Building in July, 2012.

Photo: Jeff Miller

Donohue will take up the post of president-elect on July 1, followed by a one-year term as ASM president beginning July 1, 2014.

The Society is the oldest and largest life science membership organization in the world, organizing meetings and workshops for more than 39,000 members. Its 12 journals publish nearly a quarter of all microbiology articles.

Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Donohue is an expert on the genetic pathways and networks that microbes use to grow, generate biomass, and harness and convert solar energy. His research goals include using computational models to design microbial machines with increased capacities to generate renewable energy, neutralize toxic compounds and synthesize biodegradable polymers.

Donohue is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an executive committee member of the Wisconsin Energy Institute. He has served the ASM as chair of its Division on Genetics and Molecular Biology, and on the editorial board of the society’s Journal of Bacteriology.

—Celia Luterbacher