Jizhong Zhou is a Staff Scientist and science leader for the Microbial Genomics and Ecology section in the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is the author of more than 50 publications on molecular biology, microbial genomics, molecular evolution, microbial ecology, bioremediation, and theoretical ecology.

Ying Xu is the group leader of the computational protein structure group of Life Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He serves on a number of scientific review committees including the NIH review panel on structural genomics.

James M. Tiedje is University Distinguished Professor of Microbial Ecology and Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University. He is a Fellow of ASA, SSSA, AAAS, the International Institute of Biotechnology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Dorothea Thompson is currently a Research Staff Scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laborat ory (ORNL), working in the area of microbial functional genomics. She received her Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Thompson pursued postdoctoral training in bacterial pathogen typing and vaccine development at the U. S. Food and Drug Administration in Bethesda, Maryland, and in DNA microarray-based gene expression analysis at ORNL before becoming a staff member in 2002. Her research interests and expertise focus on the mechanisms of transcription regulation in prokaryotic systems and the use of genomic technologies, specifically DNA microarrays, to describe the molecular basis underlying cellular adaptation to environmental stresses.