Shaul Pollak

Shaul Pollak is an Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna's Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, leading research on bacterial interactions and carbon cycling. His group combines genomics, machine learning, and ecological theory to study microbial communities in soils, oceans, and plant systems.

Research interests include metabolic trade-offs in biodegradation, phage-host coevolution, and genomic predictors of ecological function. Key model systems are Prochlorococcus marinus (marine cyanobacteria) and plant-microbe symbioses.

Publications reveal microbial mutualism in gut ecosystems, macroevolution of cyanobacteria, and interpretable ML models for phage defense systems. Recent work emphasizes carbon catabolic strategies, metabolic cross-feeding, and soil Listeria genomics.

No scientific awards or specific student advisees are detailed. The lab focuses on fundamental microbial ecology with applications in environmental sustainability.