Forest Rohwer

I've spent a large part of my life--perhaps the better part--on, in, or under water. Growing up in landlocked Idaho, I learned to SCUBA dive in a frigid glacial lake, but I soon made my way to warmer waters. For more than twenty years, I've been diving and doing research on tropical coral reefs around the world.

I started my research career in the field of molecular immunology, earning my Ph.D. from the San Diego State University/University of California San Diego for research on Interleukin-2 signal transduction in T cells. Soon thereafter I headed to the nearby Scripps Institution of Oceanography to work with Farooq Azam and Nancy Knowlton. By 2002 I had started my own research lab as a faculty member at SDSU. My group pioneered the use of metagenomics as a way to characterize previously inscrutable viral and microbial communities, such as those associated with reef-building corals. We've traveled repeatedly to the coral reefs in the remote Line Islands and to others to investigate the roles of the viruses and microbes in coral reef health and disease.

For my research work, I have been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). In 2008, I received the Young Investigators Award from the International Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME). In 2014, I was listed as one of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds (Thomson Reuters). So far, I've authored more than 150 scientific papers and book chapters. "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is my first book.