Organizers & Topics
2026 Keynote Speakers:
Jonathan A. Eisen, University of California, Davis
Jonathan Eisen, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor at UC Davis with appointments in the Dept. of Evolution and Ecology in the College of Biological Sciences, the Dept. of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and the School of Medicine, and the Genome Center. Previously, he served on the Faculty at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and Johns Hopkins University. He earned his PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in 1998 and his AB in Biology from Harvard College in 1990. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His current research focuses on the evolution, ecology, genomics and function of microbes and microbiomes, especially those found in association with both domesticated and wild animal and plant hosts. Most of his work involves the use of high-throughput DNA sequencing methods to characterize microbes and the use and development of computational methods to analyze such data.
In addition to his research, Dr. Eisen is heavily involved in science communication and open science activities.
Colleen M. Cavanaugh, Harvard University
Dr. Colleen M. Cavanaugh is the Edward C. Jeffrey Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Her research interests center on microbial ecology and symbiosis with a particular emphasis on bacteria-animal associations and their diversity, transmission strategies, and coevolution of host and symbiont. She has participated in research cruises worldwide with deep-sea dives in the submersible Alvin. With expertise in the study of uncultured bacteria, her research has expanded from marine symbioses to the characterization of the microbiomes of human and wild animals including Darwin’s finches. She received her B.G.S. from the University of Michigan, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard. She was a Junior Fellow at Harvard and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
2026 Session Chairs:
Jack Gilbert, University of California-San Diego
Amelia Lindsey, University of Minnesota
Laura Katz, Smith College
Laura Knoll, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Julia Oh, Duke University
John Rawls, Duke University
Maggie Sogin, University of California Merced
2026 Planning Committee:
Kevin Kohl, University of Hawaii
Katherine Lemon, Baylor College of Medicine
Kat Milligan-McClellan, University of Connecticut
David Clarke, University of Cork
Elizabeth Johnson, Cornell University
Irene Newton, Indiana University (ISS)
Buck Samuel, Baylor College of Medicine
Elizabeth Heath-Heckman, Michigan State University (ISS)
2026 Scientific Topics:
One Health and Beneficial Microbes
Microbe-Host Interaction at the Molecular Scale I
Microbe-Host Interactions at the Molecular Scale II
Microbe-host interactions at the Ecological Scale
Microbe-Host Interactions at the Ecological Scale II
Microbe-host interactions at the Evolutionary Scale
New Approaches to Study Microbe-Host Crosstalk
2026 Conference Co-Chairs:
Federico Rey, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rosanna A. Alegado, University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa