Konstantinidis (left) with a graduate research student.
Assistant professor and Carlton S. Wilder Chair Kostas Konstantinidis will participate in the nineteenth German-American Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium on April 4-6, 2014.
The symposium is co-sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and is the Academy’s premiere activity for distinguished young scientists. Unlike meetings that focus on a narrow area of science, these meetings allow participants to explore innovative research ideas across a wide variety of fields and to develop new networks that will serve them as they progress in their careers.
Attendees are selected by a committee of Academy members who choose young researchers who have already made recognized contributions to science, including recipients of major national fellowships and awards and who have been identified as future leaders in science. Since its inception in 1989, more than one hundred fifty of its “alumni” have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and ten have been awarded Nobel Prizes.
The symposium will be held at the Academy's Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California. The format includes seven formal sessions that feature formal presentations on cutting-edge research and provide ample time for questions and discussion. Significant time is allowed for informal discussions, including poster sessions that further enlarge the scope of the fields covered by the symposium. Additional symposium information may be found on the NAS website.
In Konstantinidis' six years with Georgia Tech, he has built a large, internationally recognized research program and is considered a world leader in microbiology-related global research in environments that range from the subsurface (bioremediation) to the depths of the ocean.
Konstantinidis is deeply involved in graduate student education, career development and academic achievements. You can learn more about his Environmental Microbial Genomics Laboratory (enve-omics lab) here.