Stephen T. Abedon

Biography

Steve Abedon is a Professor of Microbiology at The Ohio State University where he has served on the faculty, primarily as an instructor of undergraduates, since 1995. His principal research interest is in the evolutionary ecology of bacteriophages, a.k.a., phages, which are Earth's most prevalent category of viruses, while viruses are Earth's most abundant category of 'organisms'. This interest he pursues from both basic science and applied perspectives, organismal evolutionary adaptation and the use of phages as 'antibiotics' –phage therapy –respectively. He sees the core of his scientific training as being in biochemistry, having received his BS in that subject, but overlain with a strong tendency to explore issues of organism-level phenotype and ultimate causation.

In the ~25 years since receiving his Ph.D. –in Microbiology with a minor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (University of Arizona, 1990) –he has published over 100 articles, chapters, and other 'citable units'. The latter includes involvement in the editing of seven volumes, one as contributing editor ("with editorial assistance by...", The Bacteriophages 2/e, 2006, Oxford University Press), one as sole editor (Bacteriophage Ecology, 2008, Cambridge University Press), two as co-editor (Hyman and Abedon, Bacteriophages in Health and Disease, 2012, CABI Press, and Viruses of Microogranisms, 2018, Caister Academic Press), and one as editor of a special topics issue of the journal Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (The 'Nuts and Bolts' of Phage Therapy, 2010, Bentham Science Publishers). He has also written one book (Bacteriophages and Biofilms, 2011, Nova Science Publishers),has coedited two Frontiers in Microbiology special issues (both of which are now ebooks), is currently co-editing and editing two additional journal special issues (Pharmaceuticals and Viruses), and has drafted two textbooks which are posted online (Microbes and Evolutionand Biology as Poetry: Human Biology). Steve also founded, in 1996, the Bacteriophage Ecology Group, an ensemble of all things phage ecological. See also the website, Biology as Poetry.