Andrew Whiteley Australian Microbial Ecology 2019

Andrew Whiteley

Winthrop Professor Andy Whiteley is the 10th Australian Premier’s Fellow for Western Australia (inaugurated 2012) and Winthrop Professor of Microbial Ecology at UWA. His work has focussed on understanding the hidden microbial diversity beneath our feet. The author of over 100 publications, he has provided groundbreaking research on the function and distribution of microbes in our environment, how they input into food production and are sources and sinks for climate active gases. His research group generated the World’s first microbial map of a country, some of the first isotope-molecular ecology direct link analyses and generated the world’s first soil sampling Citizen Science program: MicroBlitz. He holds visiting positions at the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a High End Foreign Expert and the Marshall Centre for Infectious Disease Research. His current research works at the interface between large scale survey of microbes and their functions and deploying nationwide Citizen Science projects to empower citizens to determine links between themselves, their environment and their health.