Organization · Staff Home pages

Tommy Joe Phelps Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036 Phone:  (865)574-7290 Fax:  (865)576-8543 phelpstj@ornl.gov

Professional Preparation

• University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Ph.D., Bacteriology, 1979-1985
• VaTech, Blacksburg, VA. M.S., Microbiology, 1975-1977
• Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. B.A., Chemistry and Biology, 1971-1975

Professional Experience  [ Top ]

• July 1999-present, Senior Research Staff, Microbiologist, Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL
• February 1992-present, Microbiologist, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, and Research Asscoiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
• 1984-1992, Research Associate, Institute for Applied Microbiology, Univ. TN, (D.C. White, Director)

Publications  [ Top ]

Approximately 100 published manuscripts, ~10 reports, ~60 invited talks, >100 abstracts, and three patents. Research focuses on biogeochemistry in extreme environments. Selected papers below:

Riestenberg, D., O.R. West, S. Lee, S. McCallum, and T.J. Phelps. 2002 Sediment surface effects on methane hydrate formation and dissociation. Marine Geol. (Manuscript Accepted).

Phelps, T. J., A. V. Palumbo, A. S. Beliaev. 2002. Metabolomics and microarrays for improved understanding of phenotypic characteristics controlled by both genomics and environmental constraints. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 13:20-24.

Phelps, T. J., and J. K. Fredrickson. 2001. Drilling, coring and sampling subsurface environments. In: Manual of Environmental Microbiology (M. McInerney ed.) ASM Press. pp. 679-696.

Phelps, T.J., D. J. Peters, S. L. Marshall, V. Alexiades, G. K. Jacobs, J. G. Blencoe, M. T. Naney, J. L. Heck and O. R. West. 2001. A new experimental facility for investigating the formation and properties of gas hydrates under simulated seafloor conditions. Rev. Sci. Instru., 72 1514-1521.

Roh,Y., T.J. Phelps, A.D. McMillan, C. Zhang, C.J. Rawn, R.J. Lauf, and J. Bai. 2001. Microbial synthesis and the characterization of metal-substituted magnetites. Solid State Comm. 110:529-534.

Zhang, C., J.Horita, D.R. Cole, J. Zhou, D.R. Lovley, and T.J. Phelps. 2001. Temperature-dependent oxygen and carbon isotope fractionations of biogenic siderite. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta. 65:2257-2271.

Zhou, J. Z., S. Liu, B. C. Xia, C. L. Zhang, A. V. Palumbo, and T. J. Phelps. 2001. Molecular characterization of thermophilic iron-reducing enrichment cultures from deep subsurface environments. J. Appl. Microbiol. 90: 96-105.

Onstott, T.C., T.J. Phelps, F.S. Colwell, D. Ringelberg, D.C. White, and D.R. Boone. 1998. Observations pertaining to the origin and ecology of microorganisms recovered from the deep subsurface of Taylorsville Basin, Virginia. Geomicrobiol. J. 15: 353-385.

Liu, S. V., J. Zhou, C. Zhang, D. R. Cole, M. Gajdarziska-Josifovska, and T. J. Phelps 1997. Thermophilic Fe (III) Reducing bacteria from the deep subsurface: The evolutionary implications. Science 277: 1106-09.

Patents: Three patents awarded: 2002, 2001,1996.

Synergistic Activities  [ Top ]

• NSF-JOIDES-ODP United States. Science Advisory Committee (USSAC) 2000-
• NSF-S.A. African workshops for Lexan and under represented undergraduates 2000-2002
• NSF- JOIDES-ODP Deep Biosphere Planning Group committee member. 1997-2000
• NSF -JOIDES-ODP Gas Hydrate Planning group liason. 1998-2000
• Editorial Board, J. Microbiol. Methods and reviewer for several additional journals, 1990-

Collaborations & Other Activities  [ Top ]

A. Applegate, D.L. Balkwill, J.J. Beauchamp, R.E. Benoit, D.R. Boone, F. Brockman, F. Colwell, M. DeFlaun, M. Elless, S.M. Fortier, C. Fraser, J.K. Fredrickson, W.T. Griffin, B. Gu, K.I. Hayashi, T.C. Hazen, A. Heitzer, G.K. Jacobs, B.L. Kinsall, N.R. Krieg, L. Krumholz, R.J. Lauf, L. Liang, S.V. Liu, P.E. Long, E.L. Majer, D. Moser, B. Moskowitz, C.J. Murray, R. Murray, K.H. Nealson, T.C. Onstott, B.S. Parsons, A.D. Peacock, S.M. Pfiffner, H.C. Pinkart, L. Pratt, D. Reistenberg, C.S. Romanek, P. Sobecky, C.L. Stapleton, J. Suflita, J. Tiedje, C.H.Vali, J.W. Valley, O.F. Webb, O. West, J. Zhou.

Graduate and Post Doctoral Advisors
J.Z. Ziekus, advisor, University of Wisconsin; R.E.Benoit, Virginia Tech; D.C. White, Florida State University.

Thesis Advisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor
Post Masters: R. Mazumder, J. Logan, B. Kinsall, Y. Deng, D. Peters, C. Smith, D.Reistenberg, S. Fisher

Postdoctoral: C. Low, S. Pfiffner, C. Zhang, and S. Liu, Y. Roh, S. Marshall Graduate Students past 6 years: L. Lackey, L. O’Connor, and R. Mazumder and D. Reistenberg.

September 2005