| Geoffrey Michael Gadd | |
| Nationality: | British and Irish |
| Birth Date: | 15 July 1954 |
| Alma Mater: | University College Cardiff, Wales, UK |
| Organization: | University of Dundee, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Urumqi, and China University of Petroleum-Beijing. |
| Known For: | Studying the roles of fungi and other microbes in shaping the planet through metal and mineral biotransformations and their applied potential [5]. |
| Notable Works: | Geomicrobiology, Geomycology and Bioremediation [2] |
| Relatives: | Richard Gadd |
| Website: | https://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/geoff-gadd https://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/research/gmg |
Geoffrey Michael Gadd [1] [2] (born 15 July 1954) is a British-Irish microbiologist and mycologist specializing in geomicrobiology, geomycology, and bioremediation. He is currently a professor at the University of Dundee, holding the Boyd Baxter Chair of Biology, and is head of the Geomicrobiology Group.
Gadd contributes to his field's vitality via contributions to many professional societies and national and international editorial, advisory groups, and committees. He was President of the British Mycological Society (2004-2007), is currently Treasurer (2008-) and a member of several BMS committees.[3] [4] He served the former Society for General Microbiology (now Microbiology Society) as Convenor of the Environmental Microbiology group (2005-2008) and was the first Chair of the Eukaryotic Division (2008-2010). He also served on the Cell Biology; Physiology and Biochemistry; and Environmental Microbiology Groups and organized several SGM meetings and Main symposia.
He has given invited lectures at over 130 national/international venues and presented keynote/plenary lectures in over 20 countries.
Gadd gained a B.Sc. (1975) and Ph.D. (1978) in Microbiology, University College Cardiff, Wales, and after an AFRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (1978) at the University of Dundee, with William Stewart, was appointed to a Lectureship in Microbiology (1979). He was promoted to a Personal Chair in Microbiology in 1995 and became Head of the Department of Biological Sciences in 1999. He is a former Deputy Research Director of the School of Life Sciences (2000-2006), Head of the Division of Environmental and Applied Biology (2000-2007), Division of Molecular and Environmental Microbiology (2007-2009), and was founding Head of the Division of Molecular Microbiology (2009). Geoffrey Gadd currently holds the Boyd Baxter Chair of Biology at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee and leads the Geomicrobiology Group. Research is in the field of geomicrobiology and particularly the roles of fungi, and other microorganisms, in metal-mineral interactions and transformations, and their relevance to environmental processes, element cycling, mineral formation or dissolution, and bioremediation and element biorecovery. Most research has concentrated on fungi and has ranged from cellular and biochemical aspects to the environment and biotechnology, with other significant research on sulfate-reducing bacterial systems for metal bioremediation.[5] Original contributions relate to establishing the field of geomycology within geomicrobiology, and the multidisciplinary research outputs at the interface of microbiology, mineralogy, and geochemistry have greatly furthered understanding of the processes underlying metal and radionuclide accumulation, detoxification and tolerance, mechanisms affecting metal mobility in the environment, mineral dissolution, the formation of biogenic minerals, and biodeterioration of the built environment and cultural heritage. The environmental and biotechnological significance of these phenomena is a consistent focus.
The COG3 consortium is a NERC funded project joint with six universities from the UK and The Natural History Museum [6] investigating “The Geology, Geometallurgy, and Geomicrobiology of Cobalt Resources Leading to New Product Streams” (joint with Natural History Museum and Universities of Manchester, Bangor, Exeter, Loughborough, and Southampton).[7]
A recent paper with Marina Fomina and colleagues in Kiev, Ukraine describes the isolation of a Rhodococcus aetherivorans strain from lubricant-contaminated soil as a prospective phenol biodegrading agent.[8] The R. aetherivorans strain showed higher efficiency in phenol degradation compared to other strains of phenol degrading bacteria
Publications include over 300 refereed papers, 2 co-authored books, over 50 edited books (2 as sole editor), and over 50 invited book chapters. Six patents have arisen from applied research relating to detoxification of metals and radionuclides. Web of Science analysis shows over 300 records, h-index = 64 (21 February 2020). Google Scholar shows 31759 citations and a h-index of 89 (3 September 2020).[9] The latest book, co-authored with Byung Hong Kim, on Prokaryotic Metabolism and Physiology was published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press,[10] The book describes the different metabolic processes of prokaryotic microorganisms taking place in different conditions and their roles in the environment, biotechnology, and human health. Gadd has published in a variety of important journals including Environmental Microbiology, Nature Microbiology, Nature Biotechnology, Current Biology, Environmental Science Nano and Fungal Biology.
Publications can be found by accessing the following link:
https://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/people/geoff-gadd/publications
Source: