Howard Ochman

Howard Ochman is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, holding the Joseph J. & Jeanne M. Lagowski Regents Professorship in Molecular Bioscience. His research focuses on microbial evolution, particularly genome evolution in bacteria like E. coli, Shigella, and Salmonella. He explores dynamics of bacterial genomes, origins of novel traits, phylogenetic classification, and genomic analysis of microbial communities in hosts.

Educational Background: Ph.D. (1984) and M.S. (1979) from the University of Rochester, B.A. (1975) from Vassar College. Prior academic roles include professorships at Yale, the University of Arizona, and the University of Rochester.

Research Interests: Evolutionary genomics, horizontal gene transfer, bacterial speciation, microbiome dynamics in great apes, and the emergence of new genes. His lab uses experimental, comparative, and computational methods to study genome evolution.

Awards: American Academy of Microbiology Fellow (2001), AAAS Fellow (2006), University of Arizona Regents’ Professor (2008). Current grants include NIH and NSF funding for ape microbiome and microbial diversity studies.

Lab Members: Includes postdocs, graduate students, and research assistants. Notable past advisees include Md. Hassan uz-Zaman (Ph.D. 2024), Alex Nishida (Ph.D. 2021), and Andrew Moeller (Ph.D. 2015).

Key Collaborations: With institutions like the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), NSF-funded projects on microbial diversity, and international researchers in microbial ecology.