James Godde

James Godde is Professor and Chair of the Biology Department at Monmouth College, actively leading the institution's participation in the HHMI Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program. He serves as primary instructor for multiple course sections focused on bacteriophage discovery and genomic analysis.

His research centers on bacteriophage-host interactions using Corynebacterium xerosis, Streptomyces griseus, and Microbacterium species as hosts. This work bridges experimental microbiology with computational genomics, emphasizing undergraduate-driven phage discovery and evolutionary analysis. His teaching integrates wet-lab techniques with bioinformatics to explore viral diversity and host adaptation mechanisms.

Dr. Godde mentors 18 undergraduate students across two Fall 2025 phage discovery sections (9 students each), with historical involvement in both in situ and in silico components of the SEA-PHAGES curriculum. His program consistently engages predominantly first-year students in authentic research, with sections meeting 5 times weekly for 6.5 hours of intensive laboratory work.

He co-leads Monmouth College's SEA-PHAGES team alongside colleague Eric Engstrom, maintaining continuous program participation since at least 2019. Their collaborative framework includes sequential student progression from phage isolation (Fall) to genomic analysis (Spring), with documented student retention in the research pipeline.