Dr Tom Jeffries - Co Chair

Tom Jeffries is Senior Lecturer in Microbiology and Secretary of the ASM NSW/ACT Branch committee. Tom did his PhD in marine microbial ecology at Flinders University before moving to the University of Technology Sydney for a postdoc in the same field.  He then switched to soil microbial ecology, completing a second postdoc at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University, where he was later appointed to Faculty. Tom teaches microbiology, bioinformatics and microbial forensics.  He serves as course advisor for the Bachelor of Science and has established a research group in molecular microbial ecology.  His current research focuses on applying molecular and computational tools to understand the drivers of microbial diversity in different habitats including the ocean, dryland soils, animal guts and the human microbiome.  He also researches the intersection of microbiology and history.    Tom was the Director of the Joint Academic Microbiology Seminars (JAMS) group, currently serves as a Senior Editor for Letters in Applied Microbiology and is passionate about science communication.  When not in front of a computer he can generally be found in front of a history book, or out in the bush trail running or mountain biking.