Dr. Brett J Baker is an associate professor in the departments of Integrative Biology and Marine Science (Marine Science Institute) at the University of Texas Austin. He is the co-director of the Center for Planetary Systems and Habitability at UT Austin. Dr. Baker’s research focused on understanding the ecology and evolution of microbes that have not been grown in laboratories. His research team primarily uses genomics to understand how microbes are involved in the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the oceans. He is also working to understand the role of novel microbes in the origin of eukaryotes (like plants and animals). Brett received the Alfred P. Sloan Research fellowship in Ocean Science, elected as a member of the American Academy for Microbiology, and the Simons Foundation Early Career Investigator Award in Marine Microbial Ecology and Evolution. Dr. Baker got his bachelor’s degree in biology and M.S. in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and PhD in Geology at the University of Michigan. He also worked as a research associate in Earth and Planetary Science at University of California Berkeley for ten years.
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