Jo Emily Handelsman (born March 19, 1959) is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at

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 ...

. She is also a Vilas Research Professor and a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

Professor. Handelsman was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Associate Director for Science at the White House

Office of Science and Technology Policy The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a department of the United States government, part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President (EOP), established by United States Congres ...

, where she served for three years until January 2017. She has been editor-in-chief of the academic journal '' DNA and Cell Biology'' and author of books on scientific education, most notably ''Scientific Teaching''.

Education

Handelsman was born on March 19, 1959, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. She earned her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1979 and her Ph.D. in

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

from the

in 1984.

Career

Handelsman secured a faculty position in plant pathology at the

in 1985. She remained at Wisconsin until 2009, and then took a position at the Yale University Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in 2010. Her research involves the study of

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s present in soil and insect gut. She is responsible for coining the term

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 ...

and is particularly known for her work in pioneering the use of functional

to study antibiotic resistance. She has published books and held workshops on scientific teaching, for which she is recognized nationally. She is a researcher and advocate of women in science issues. One of Handelsman's seminal studies found that the gender of a name on a science resume affected a professor's inclination to hire, mentor, and pay applicants for a lab position. She was co-director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute and was the first president of the Rosalind Franklin Society. In 2008, she received the Alice C. Evans Award. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Award for Science Mentoring, which recognizes mentors in science or engineering. In 2015, she gave the third annual Patrusky Lecture.

Honors and awards

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Fellow in 2019. In 2023, she was 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 ...

Bibliography

*''Scientific Teaching'' (2006) () *''Entering Mentoring:A Seminar to Train a New Generation of Scientists'' (2008) () *''A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet'' (2021) ()

References

External links

Interview with Handelsman
by CBE: Life Sciences Education
Jo Handelsman's Short Talk: "The Practice of Mentoring"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handelsman, Jo 1959 births American microbiologists Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Living people Office of Science and Technology Policy officials University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Yale University faculty American women microbiologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences