Organizers & Topics

2026 Keynote Speakers:

Eugene Chang, University of Chicago

 

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

John Rawls, Duke University

Amelia Lindsey, University of Minnesota

Julia Oh, Duke University

Christopher Lane, University of Rhode Island

Maggie Sogin, University of California Merced

Shai Bel, Bar-Ilan University

Laura Knoll, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

 

2026 Planning Committee:

Kevin Kohl, University of Pittsburgh

Katherine P. 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

Emerging Concepts in Microbe-Host Dynamics

New Approaches to Study Microbe-Host Crosstalk

 

2026 Conference Co-Chairs:

Federico Rey, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rosanna A. Alegado, University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa