Hal Schreier

Hal Schreier is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He leads research in marine biotechnology, aquaculture systems, and microbial ecology with a focus on symbiotic relationships and environmental biotechnology. His academic roles include teaching and supervising research in microbial communities, probiotic development, and nitrogen cycling processes.

Education: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tufts University Health Sciences Campus (1986), Ph.D. in Microbiology from The Pennsylvania State University (1983), and B.S. in Biological Sciences from California Polytechnic State University (1978).

Research Interests: Dr. Schreier's work spans marine microbial ecology, probiotic applications in aquaculture, and microbiome studies in wood-eating fish. He investigates symbiotic microbial communities involved in lignocellulose degradation, nitrogen fixation, and pathogen inhibition. Key contributions include developing probiotic bacterial strains for finfish/shellfish health and optimizing recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).

Intellectual Contributions: He holds multiple patents including methods for microbial phosphate sequestration in aquaculture systems and anaerobic ammonia oxidation for water treatment. His over 40 publications focus on microbial community dynamics and applied microbiology in aquatic environments.

Advising & Grants: While specific student names aren't listed, his research program supports graduate students and postdocs through grants addressing aquaculture sustainability and microbial genomics. He collaborates internationally on projects like the wood-eating catfish microbiome and anammox bacteria in biofilters.

Labs/Teams: Active in UMBC's Rita Rossi Colwell Center for Marine Biotechnology and leads microbial ecology projects in the Department of Biological Sciences. His lab focuses on genomic analysis of probiotic strains and environmental microbiome studies.