Peter Vandamme

Peter Vandamme obtained a PhD in bacterial taxonomy from the Laboratory of Microbiology at Ghent University (Belgium), and did postdoctoral studies in medical and pharmaceutical microbiology. He is currently a full professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, and Director of the BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection (http://bccm.belspo.be/). His research group studies basic and applied aspects of microbial diversity in human, food, environmental, and insect microbiology. To date, his team and coworkers have described over 60 novel bacterial genera and 350 novel bacterial species. He has been a member of several ICSP Taxonomic Subcommittees, and has received the WFCC Skerman and Bergey awards in recognition of his contributions to prokaryotic taxonomy.