Jennifer Martiny is the first winner of the ISME Winogradsky Award

Winner of the ISME Winogradsky Award 2024

ISME congratulates Jennifer Martiny as the first winner of the Winogradsky Award, the newly developed award for mid-career scientists who have substantially advanced the field of microbial ecology.

Jennifer Martiny is an exceptional researcher in microbial ecology and biogeography, whose groundbreaking work has significantly advanced our understanding of microbial diversity and its impact on ecosystem functioning. Her research explores the origins and maintenance of microbial diversity, leveraging innovative methodologies to reveal how selection, dispersal, drift, and diversification shape bacterial and fungal community assembly. Some of her key contributions include insights into how ecological and evolutionary processes simultaneously influence the assembly and functioning of microbial communities and the development of tractable microbial systems to explore eco-evolutionary processes in natural settings, especially in the context of rapid global change.

Jennifer Martiny will give a talk on Eco-evolutionary processes of assembly in wild microbial communities at the 19th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology. ISME19 will be held in Cape Town from 18-23 August 2024.

Jennifer Martiny is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. She received her B.S. in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution at UC San Diego and her Ph.D. at Stanford University. Dr. Martiny co-directs the UC Irvine Center for Microbiome Science and leads the Microbiome Centers Consortium, a national network of academic microbiome centers. She is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Association for the Advancement for Science.

The Winogradsky Award recognises mid-career scientists who have substantially advanced the field of microbial ecology. The award acknowledges outstanding contributions to microbial ecology including the development of novel techniques, proposing and advancing ecology theories, and establishing new disciplines within the field. Nominees are suggested by the membership and must be active researchers 10-25 years post-PhD. The winner was selected by a panel of experts and the ISME Executive Board.