Karen Nelson

Dr. Nelson will lead the Microbiome Area for HLI.

In addition to her role at HLI, Dr. Karen Nelson is the President of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) where she has worked for the past 17 years. Prior to being appointed President, she held a number of other positions at the Institute, including Director of JCVI’s Rockville Campus, and Director of Human Microbiology and Metagenomics in the Department of Human Genomic Medicine at the JCVI.

Dr. Nelson has extensive experience in microbial ecology, microbial genomics, microbial physiology and metagenomics. Since joining the JCVI legacy institutes, Dr. Nelson has led several genomic and metagenomic efforts, and led the first human metagenomics study that was published in 2006. Additional ongoing studies in her group include metagenomic approaches to study the ecology of the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals, studies on the relationship between the microbiome and various human and animal disease conditions, reference genome sequencing and analysis primarily for the human body, and other -omics studies.

Dr. Nelson received her undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies, and her PhD from Cornell University.

She has authored or co-authored over 100 peer reviewed publications and edited three books, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journals Microbial Ecology and Advances in Microbial Ecology.

She also serves on the Editorial Boards of BMC Genomics, GigaScience, and the Central European Journal of Biology.

She is also a standing member of the NRC Committee on Biodefense, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board of Life Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Karen Nelson is the Chief Scientific Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in United States, North America. With a background in Biotechnology, Karen Nelson has a rich history of leadership and innovation.Karen Nelson studied Ph.D. unknown at Cornell University. Explore their detailed professional journey, key connections, and contributions to the industry on our platform.