Tonya C. Bates

Tonya C. Bates is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, actively instructing SEA-PHAGES program courses since Spring 2020 through Spring 2025. She teaches both in situ (phage discovery) and in silico (genomics/bioinformatics) tracks of the curriculum.

Her research integrates phage genomics with microbiology, specializing in genomic analysis of bacteriophages using Arthrobacter globiformis and Microbacterium foliorum bacterial hosts. This work emphasizes undergraduate training in bioinformatics pipelines and evolutionary science through hands-on phage characterization.

Dr. Bates has served as primary or additional instructor for at least six SEA-PHAGES course sections (BIOL 4000/4165), each enrolling 12 students with 4 weekly contact hours. She collaborates extensively with colleagues Ellen Wisner, Sharon Bullock, and Michelle B. Pass across both discovery and genomics-focused sections.

As a national SEA-PHAGES community member, she participates in program workshops and symposia including the 2025 Phage Genomics Workshop and 2026 SEA Symposium.