Hari Kotturi

Hari Kotturi serves as Professor of Biology at the University of Central Oklahoma, actively directing HHMI SEA-PHAGES program courses since 2017. His instructional leadership spans phage discovery, virology, and genomics curricula across undergraduate levels, primarily engaging juniors and seniors in hands-on microbiological research.

His research centers on bacteriophage-host interactions using bacterial hosts including Microbacterium foliorum, Microbacterium paraoxydans, and Arthrobacter species. This work integrates wet-lab microbiology with computational genomics, emphasizing evolutionary analysis of phage genomes through the SEA-PHAGES framework. Recent instructional focus shows increased emphasis on Microbacterium paraoxydans hosts since 2022 and expanded bioinformatics components in spring 2020-2024 offerings.

Dr. Kotturi has instructed 148+ students across 12 course iterations between 2017-2024, with notable enrollment in Fall 2018 Virology (28 students) and consistent multi-section teaching in Fall 2019 and Fall 2022. His courses maintain rigorous schedules with 2 weekly meetings and 2-6 lab hours, reflecting deep commitment to undergraduate research training in phage biology.