UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ed Dudley, professor of food science at Penn State, recently was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. 

Fellows of the academy, an honorific leadership group and think tank within the American Society for Microbiology, are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process, based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. 

“It is a great honor to be nominated by colleagues and recognized by the American Society for Microbiology,” Dudley said.

Dudley’s research interests include molecular biology and genomics of food-borne pathogens, toxin production by Escherichia coli O157:H7, and genomic methods of tracking bacteria associated with food-borne outbreaks.

The academy received 148 nominations this year and elected 65, including Dudley, into the 2023 Fellowship Class. There are more than 2,600 fellows in the academy representing all subspecialties of the microbial sciences and involved in basic and applied research, teaching, public health, industry and government service.

Dudley is very deserving of the honor, according to Robert Roberts, professor and head of the Department of Food Science. “Ed has maintained a strong research program, is an excellent mentor to both students and colleagues, and holds himself to a high standard,” Roberts said. “He has been instrumental in shaping the future of food microbiology at Penn State.” 

Dudley is currently an editor for the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology published by the American Society for Microbiology. He is past chair of the Food Microbiology Division and served on the programming committee for the annual Microbe meeting for four years, including serving as chair of the Applied and Environmental Sciences track for two years. He edits the Evolution and Genomics domain for the society’s journal EcoSal Plus and was a distinguished lecturer for the society from 2019 to 2021.

The American Society for Microbiology is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa, as well as other aspects of microbiology. It was founded in 1899.