Bill Mohn

Dr. William (Bill) Mohn is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia. Bill earned his B.A. from Colgate University and his Ph.D. from Michigan State. He was a Research Associate at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa prior to moving to UBC as an Assistant professor in 1993.

Bill has done pioneering research on bacterial metabolism of chlorinated compounds, terpenoids, lignocellulose and steroids. He is a leader in microbial ecology and the development of methods to investigate highly complex microbial communities and is internationally recognized for his research.

Bill’s current research employs classical, molecular, genomic, and metagenomic approaches to study interactions between the host microbiome and immune system as well as bacterial metabolism of lignocellulose and steroids. He was awarded the UBC Killam Research Prize and the Canadian Society of Microbiologists Murray Award for career achievement. He was elected to both The American Academy of Microbiology and the Board of Directors of the International Society for Microbial Ecology. Pseudomonas mohnii was named in recognition of his pioneering contributions.

Bill has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has led or co-led several interdisciplinary collaborative research projects. He served on the Editorial Boards of Applied & Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology as well as on advisory boards for several major research initiatives, including the Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Bill teaches microbial ecophysiology and has supervised 19 postdocs, 34 graduate students and 55 undergraduate researchers.