Adam Rudner

Adam Rudner is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa actively leading the HHMI Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program. He serves as primary instructor for multiple undergraduate sections in both in situ (phage discovery/microbiology) and in silico (bioinformatics/genomics) course formats, consistently teaching 12-16 students per section across Fall and Winter terms from 2019 through projected 2025-2026 offerings.

His research focuses on:

• Bacteriophage isolation and characterization
• Genomic annotation of novel phages
• Evolutionary analysis of phage-host systems
• Bioinformatics pipeline development
• Undergraduate research pedagogy

Rudner mentors numerous student teams (e.g., Team Circuit & Vitus, Team EnochSoames, Team Polkaroo) through hands-on phage discovery using bacterial hosts including Mycobacterium smegmatis, Arthrobacter globiformis, Streptomyces species, and Microbacterium foliorum. Each section involves 6-7 weekly hours of laboratory and computational work, contributing to national collaborative phage genomics databases. His teaching directly supports large-scale bacteriophage research while providing authentic research experiences for undergraduate students.