Julia Halo Knerr

Julia Halo Knerr serves as an Additional Instructor for the BIOL 4000 course (Phage Discovery) in the SEA-PHAGES program at Bowling Green State University during Spring 2024. Collaborating with Primary Instructor Raymond Larsen, she teaches 9 undergraduate students (2 sophomores, 2 juniors, 5 seniors) in a 5-hour weekly course focused on phage isolation and microbiology using Mycobacterium phlei and Mycobacterium smegmatis hosts.

Her research centers on Microbiology and Phage Genomics, emphasizing hands-on genomic analysis within the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's national Science Education Alliance framework. This work integrates Evolutionary Science principles through bacteriophage characterization and contributes to undergraduate research training in genomic techniques.

As part of the SEA-PHAGES network, Ms. Knerr participates in faculty workshops and symposia advancing phage genomics education, including the 2025 Phage Genomics Workshop and 2026 SEA Symposium. Her instructional approach provides students with authentic research experiences in phage discovery and genomic annotation.