Speaker: Valerie J. Harwood, PhD

Presentation: State of the Science in Microbial Source Tracking: What Environmental Mangers and Public Health Practitioners Should Know

Dr. Harwood is an environmental microbiologist and microbial ecologist. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of South Florida, Tampa Florida. She received a BA in French from Iowa State University and a BS in Biology from SUNY Plattsburgh. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia.

Dr. Harwood conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland Center Of Marine Biotechnology in Baltimore. She was Assistant Professor for 3 years at University of North Florida and since 1998 has been a member of the Biology Department at USF.

One of Dr. Harwood’s major areas of expertise is microbial source tracking which endeavors to determine the sources of indicator bacteria such as fecal coliforms and enterococci in water by phenotypic and genotypic typing methods. She is also interested in the persistence and ecology of enteric organisms in secondary habitats like water and sediments. Genotyping of Vibrio vulnificus, a foodborne pathogen which causes frequently lethal infections is another area explored by her lab.

Dr. Harwood has published and presented papers on the efficacy of wastewater treatment on reduction of microbial numbers, on the biochemistry of the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus, on Vibrio genetics, physiology, and detection in environmental waters and on phylogeny and antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus spp.