Postdoctoral scholar joins Bell lab

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology welcomes new postdoctoral scholar, William King, who joined the Bell Lab earlier this month.

King's research focuses on examining the movement of soil bacteria in agricultural settings to improve agricultural outcomes, the ways bacteria colonize soil and plant environments, and the factors that govern plant-associated microbial community composition and the effect of disturbance on these microbes.

Prior to joining Penn State, King worked with bacterial communities in aquaculture settings. King has gained extensive experience with 16S rRNA data, the molecular manipulation of marine bacteria with a focus on Vibrio species and the genetic manipulation of plasmids. One of King's key contributions to the field has been the development of a new high throughput sequencing assay for improved characterization of Vibrio communities, which aides in the examination of fine-scale shifts within the Vibrio community prior to disease events.

King holds a doctorate in molecular microbial ecology and a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.