Cosloy-Blank Family Lecture Distinguished Scientist Dr. Jo Handelsman
Pioneering microbiologist Jo Handelsman presents the Ninth Annual Sharon Cosloy - Edward Blank Family Distinguished Scientist Lecture at The City College of New York 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center located on the CCNY campus. Her talk, entitled, "Finding Thor's Hammer: Multiomics search for the driver of microbiome function,” is free and open to the public. Click here to register and for directions.
Handelsman is the director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) and a Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 1985 where she served for 25 years before moving to Yale University in 2010.
From 2014 to 2017, Handelsman served as a science advisor to President Barack Obama in her role as Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. After leaving the White House, Handelsman returned to UW-Madison where she continues to work on national policy as well as direct WID and pursue her own research on the soil and human microbiomes. In 2021 Handelsman published A World Without Soil, a book that presents the soil erosion crisis and policy recommendations to avert it.
Her research seeks to understand how microorganisms cooperate with and antagonize each other. She is known for pioneering the field of functional metagenomics. Handelsman has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors. She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Obama in 2011.
About the Sharon Cosloy - Edward Blank Distinguished Scientist Lectureship
Dr. Sharon Cosloy was a member of the City College biology faculty for 27 years and served as Chair of the Biology Department for six years. She was a beloved mentor, educator, wife and mother and a passionate investigator of life and science. The Professor Sharon Cosloy and Edward Blank Family Distinguished Scientist Lectureship is regarded as the preeminent scientific lecture on campus. The City College of New York is grateful to Edward Blank and his family for their generous support.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Jay Mwamba
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jmwamba@ccny.cuny.edu