Dr. Rob Knight received his PhD from Princeton
University and performed postdoctoral
work at the University of Colorado–Boulder,
where he became Professor of Chemistry &
Biochemistry and Computer Science at the
BioFrontiers Institute. He is currently Professor in
the Departments of Pediatrics and Computer
Science and Engineering and founding
Director of the Center for Microbiome
Innovation at the University of California San
Diego. He is also co-founder of the Earth
Microbiome Project, the American Gut Project,
and the company Biota, Inc., which uses DNA
from microbes in the earth’s subsurface to
guide oilfield decisions for industry.
Dr. Knight’s research focuses on developing
computational and experimental techniques
to characterize the complex microbial
ecosystems of humans, animals, and the
environment. His work has linked microbes
to a range of health conditions, including
obesity and inflammatory bowel disease, has
enhanced our understanding of
microbes in environments ranging from the
oceans to the tundra, and has made
high-throughput sequencing techniques
(QIIME pipeline, UniFrac) accessible to
researchers worldwide. Dr. Knight is extensively
published in his field and has established
numerous collaborations with experts across
disciplines. He is a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) and of the American Academy of
Microbiology. Dr. Knight was selected to be a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career
Scientist in 2009, invited to give a TED talk in
2014, and received the 2015 Vilceck Prize in
Creative Promise for the Life Sciences. He
is also the author of the well-received book
Follow Your Gut: The Enormous Impact of Tiny
Microbes, published in 2015, and co-author
of the book Dirt Is Good: The Advantage of
Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune
System, published in 2017..