Bio
Dale A. Pelletier is a Senior Staff Scientist in the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maine at Orono in 1986 and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Iowa in 2000 for his work on molecular mechanisms of anaerobic benzoate metabolism. He continued his work on anaerobic aromatic metabolism during post-doctoral work at Stanford University in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He is a faculty member in the Genome Science and Technology graduate program at the University of Tennessee. His research interests include microbial isolation and physiological characterization of microbes from root tissues of Populus trees with the goal of utilizing model microbial communities in the laboratory to understand microbial mechanisms of plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions and influence on microbial community structure and host phenotypes.