Washington, DC—May 28, 2008—The 2008 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Procter & Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology is being presented to Edward F. DeLong, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This award recognizes distinguished achievement in research and development in applied and environmental microbiology.
Dr. DeLong is recognized for his distinguished achievements in the field of marine microbiology. His work has been at the forefront of an explosion of new information about marine microbial diversity, and he is a world leader in developing and using metagenomics to address environmental microbiological questions. One of Dr. DeLong's most important contributions is the breakthrough discovery that marine archaea are among the most abundant organisms in the deep ocean, while his work in sediment microbiology led to his identification of dystrophic associations of organisms that result in methane oxidation through new kinds of metabolism. Dr. DeLong's genomic approaches to the study of marine microbes have paved the way for a new understanding of the complexity of marine microbiology and provided fresh insight into marine microbial bioenergetics. Dr. DeLong has served on numerous editorial boards including Applied and Environmental Microbiology, has co-chaired several American Academy of Microbiology colloquia, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. DeLong received his B.S. in Bacteriology from the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
The Procter & Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology will be presented during the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), June 1 – June 5, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 43,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health and economic and environmental well-being.