Jillian Fiona Banfield (born Armidale, Australia) is professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

with appointments in the Earth Science, Ecosystem Science and Materials Science and Engineering departments. She is the director of microbiology the

Innovative Genomics Institute The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute founded by Nobel laureate and CRISPR gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna and biophysicist Jonathan Weissman. The institute is based at the University ...

, is affiliated with

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

and has a position at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, Australia. Some of her most noted work includes publications on the structure and functioning of microbial communities and the nature, properties and reactivity (especially crystal growth) of nanomaterials.

Early life and education

Banfield was educated at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

where she completed her bachelor's and master's degrees (1978–1985) both examining granite weathering. She attributes her initial interest in

geomicrobiology Geomicrobiology is the scientific field at the intersection of geology and microbiology and is a major subfield of geobiology. It concerns the role of microbes on geological and geochemical processes and effects of minerals and metals to microbia ...

to Dr Tony Eggleton who drew her attention to processes at the earth's surface, mineral weathering and the regolith. Banfield graduated with a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Earth and Planetary Sciences from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

for

high-resolution transmission electron microscopy High-resolution transmission electron microscopy is an imaging mode of specialized transmission electron microscopes that allows for direct imaging of the atomic structure of samples. It is a powerful tool to study properties of materials on the ...

(HRTEM) studies of

metamorphic reaction A metamorphic reaction is a chemical reaction that takes place during the geological process of metamorphism wherein one assemblage of minerals is transformed into a second assemblage which is stable under the new temperature/pressure conditions r ...

s supervised by David R. Veblen.

Career and research

Banfield is an earth scientist who studies the structure, functioning and diversity of microbial communities in natural environments and the human microbiome. Banfield was a Fulbright Student in Medicine from th
Australian National University
t
Johns Hopkins University
in 1988, and
Mac Arthur Fellow
in 1999. She has been a professor at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

from 1990 to 2001 and the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

(1996–1998). Since 2001, she has been a researcher and professor at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

where she heads the geomicrobiology program and works as a researcher at the

. Her research as of 2021 spans field sites in Northern California to Australia and covers subjects at the intersection of microbiology and geosciences, including genome-resolved metagenomics, genome editing tool development, astrobiology and microbial carbon capture. In 2006 Banfield encouraged

Jennifer Doudna Jennifer Anne Doudna (; born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, wit ...

to study

CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...

after finding the sequences pervasive and rapidly evolving across bacterial genomes. (Doudna went on to receive a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

for her resulting groundbreaking CRISPR gene engineering technology). In 2023, Banfield became the first woman to win the

Leeuwenhoek Medal The Leeuwenhoek Medal, established in 1875 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), in honor of the 17th- and 18th-century microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, is granted every ten years to the scientist judged to have mad ...

from the Royal Dutch Society for Microbiology, an award that has been given roughly every 10 years since 1875 to honor scientists who have made outstanding contributions to science, society and outreach in the field of microbiology.

Work

Genome-Resolved Metagenomics

Banfield pioneered the development and application of genome-resolved

metagenomics Metagenomics is the study of all genetics, genetic material from all organisms in a particular environment, providing insights into their composition, diversity, and functional potential. Metagenomics has allowed researchers to profile the mic ...

, a technique that allows for the reconstruction of individual

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

s from complex microbial communities without the need for cultivation. This approach significantly expanded our understanding of microbial diversity and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

Tree of Life Expansion

Through her work in genomics, Banfield's research group has provided insights into previously unknown

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

l and

archaea Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...

l lineages. This has led to a substantial revision and expansion of the

Tree of Life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, mythological, religion, religious, and philosophy, philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The ...

, adding entire new branches known as

Candidate Phyla Radiation The candidate phyla radiation (also referred to as CPR group) is a large evolutionary radiation of bacterial lineages whose members are mostly uncultivated and only known from metagenomics and single cell sequencing. They have been described as ...

, reshaping our understanding of microbial evolution:

Microorganism-Mineral Interactions

Banfield has made significant contributions to understanding how microorganisms interact with

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

s. This includes studies on how these interactions can lead to the production of

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

and influence

geochemical cycle In Earth science, a geochemical cycle is the pathway that chemical elements undergo to be able to interact with the reservoirs of chemicals in the surface and crust of the Earth. The term "geochemical" tells us that geological and chemical factors ...

Microbiome Community Editing

Banfield's research has expanded to include innovative approaches for editing microbial communities, with applications in human health and

climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include energy conservation, conserving energy and Fossil fuel phase-out, repl ...

. In collaboration with

, Banfield has developed groundbreaking techniques for precision

microbiome A microbiome () is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps ''et al.'' as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably wel ...

editing. Their work combines genome-resolved

with CRISPR genome editing to enable targeted modifications of specific genes in complex microbial communities. In 2023 they launched a $70 million initiative to apply microbiome editing to address global challenges in human and planetary health. For human health applications, the research focuses on editing the microbiome to prevent childhood asthma and other inflammatory diseases. In climate change mitigation efforts, the team is targeting methane-producing microbes in livestock to reduce agricultural

methane emissions Increasing methane emissions are a major contributor to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, and are responsible for up to one-third of near-term global heating. During 2019, about 60% (360 million tons) of methane r ...

Honours and awards

*2023

*2018 Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: *2017 V.M. Goldschmidt Award,

Geochemical Society The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Co ...

*2015 Elected to the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

(International Member) *2015 Honor doctorate, Ben Gurion University, Israel *2013 Award of Dr. sch. h.c. ETH Zurich, Switzerland *2011 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science: North American Laureate *2011 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science of the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

*2010

Dana Medal The Dana Medal, established in 1998, is awarded by the Mineralogical Society of America and is named in honor of the contributions made by James Dwight Dana (1813–1895) and Edward Salisbury Dana (1849–1935) to the science of mineralogy. It reco ...

of the

Mineralogical Society of America The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) is a scientific membership organization. MSA was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry, ...

*2007 Elected Fellow,

The Geochemical Society The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Co ...

*2007 ASM Division Q Lecturer (Environmental and General Applied Microbiology) *2006 Elected Fellow,

American Academy of Microbiology American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

*2006 Elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

*2005 Pioneer Lecturer, Clay Minerals Society, June 2005 *2005 Rosenqvist Lecturer, Norway, May 2005 *2000 Inaugural NSF Earth Science Week Lecturer *2000 Gast Lecturer,

*2000

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...

Fellowship *2000 Marion L. and Christie M. Jackson Award of the Clay Minerals Society *1999 Fellow through 2004

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

*1999 Faculty Achievement Award, UW-Madison *1999 D.A. Brown Medal,

*1998 H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship UW Madison *1997

Award *1988 Fulbright Scholar in Medicine at Johns Hopkins University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banfield, Jillian F. Living people Australian expatriates in the United States Australian women geologists Australian microbiologists Geomicrobiologists UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty Australian National University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Expatriate academics in the United States MacArthur Fellows Australian women microbiologists Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century American women scientists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Evolutionary biologists Women evolutionary biologists Fellows of the Royal Society 1959 births Female fellows of the Royal Society Recipients of the V. M. Goldschmidt Award