Research Highlights
August 2008
Allan Konopka Joins Laboratory Fellow Ranks
Dr. Allan Konopka, head of the microbiology group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has been named Laboratory Fellow, the highest rank that PNNL science and engineering staff can attain. Konopka, who was honored August 6 at a ceremony at PNNL, is an internationally known microbial ecologist. His research is focused on the physiological and community ecology of aquatic and soil microorganisms, and investigations of microbiological influences on contaminant fate and transport.
Before joining PNNL in 2007, Konopka was a full professor at Purdue University in the Department of Biological Sciences. At PNNL, he leads efforts on the ecology of microorganisms related to environmental remediation, bioenergy and carbon sequestration. He is participating on two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Climate and Environmental Sciences Division: the Hanford Integrated Field Challenge and PNNL's Scientific Focus Area on the Role of Microenvironments and Transition Zones in Subsurface Reactive Contaminant Transport.
Konopka has authored or co-authored 102 peer-reviewed journal publications and reviews in high-impact journals for microbiology and microbial ecology such as Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, Journal of Bacteriology and Environmental Science & Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and has been a Fulbright Scholar, Fogarty International Senior Fellow and Erskine Fellow.