Peter Greenberg has embraced a life-long fascination with the life of microbes. As a graduate student he believed that microbes exhibited social behaviors like other living creatures, communicating with each other and taking on special attributes when working together in groups. This notion was considered heretical when Greenberg began his research; today, thanks to Greenberg’s work, it is widely accepted.

Dr. Greenberg's work focuses on the mechanisms of small molecule signaling used by bacteria in cell-to-cell communication and coordination of gene expression, and on stationary bacterial communities called biofilms. His basic research program has become a nidus of activity for microbiology researchers interested in new therapeutic targets for particularly difficult chronic bacterial infections. His research group studies the molecular basis of signaling and biofilm development, and investigators involved with a small company he founded are focused on developing new therapies for chronic infections. Greenberg’s work receives funding from a number of organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Keck Foundation, and the Procter and Gamble Company.

Born in New York, Greenberg's family moved to the west coast when he was a toddler. He grew up in Seattle and in 1970 received his bachelor's degree in biology from Western Washington University. He then moved to The University of Iowa, where in 1972 he obtained a master's in microbiology, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1977. After an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard he assumed his first faculty position at Cornell University, where he worked from 1978 to 1988 before returning to Iowa. He was the Virgil and Evelyn Shepperd Professor of Molecular Pathogenesis in The University of Iowa Department of Microbiology through 2004. Greenberg is now the Chair of Microbiology at the University of Washington.

Greenberg has mentored 18 postdoctoral students and a dozen graduate students--all of whom are actively engaged in science to this day--and he takes great pride in their accomplishments as independent investigators. An elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and now the National Academy of Sciences, Greenberg is credited with numerous accomplishments in the scientific community, has held a number of editorial posts and serves on several national and international committees.

David Gibson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his fundamental studies on the chemistry and enzymology of the reactions used by bacteria to degrade environmental pollutants.  His work has provided the framework for development of the fields of bioremediation and biocatalysis.

Gibson grew up in Saltburn on the northeast coast of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. He came to the USA in 1964 after receiving his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry at The University of Leeds. After postdoctoral studies at the Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois, he joined the Department of Microbiology at The University of Texas at Austin, rising to the positions of Professor and Director of The Center for Applied Microbiology. In 1988 he came to The University of Iowa to take the first endowed Edwin B. Green Chair in Biocatalysis and Microbiology, a position he held until his retirement in 2004.

Gibson's interests in microbial chemistry were generated by his graduate mentor, the late Stanley Dagley, and mentoring students has been the most rewarding aspect of his academic career.  His students, graduate and postdoctoral, populate universities, government and industry and their influence on the fields of environmental microbiology and biocatalysis continues to grow.

Gibson's research on the mechanisms used by microorganisms to degrade aromatic hydrocarbons led to the elucidation of new convergent pathways for the oxidation of these compounds to carbon dioxide and water.  Novel bacterial metabolites, isolated and identified in his laboratory, have been used to synthesize important biologically-active compounds, and his studies on the structure and function of Rieske dioxygenases have advanced our knowledge of how these enzymes add the oxygen to the benzenoid nucleus.

Dr. Gibson is the recipient of the Texas Piper-Stevens Award for Teaching and Research, and The American Society for Microbiology's Procter and Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  He is a member of The American Academy for Microbiology, has served on prestigious editorial boards, NIH study sections and the Scientific Advisory Boards of Amgen and Ecova.