Microbiology: A Human Perspective

Denise Anderson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, where she teaches a variety of courses including general microbiology, medical bacteriology laboratory, and medical mycology/parasitology laboratory. Equipped with a diverse educational background, including undergraduate work in nutrition and graduate work in food science and in microbiology, she first discovered a passion for teaching when she taught microbiology laboratory courses as part of her graduate training. Her enthusiastic teaching style, fueled by regular doses of Seattles famous coffee, receives high reviews by her students. Outside of academic life, Denise relaxes in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, where she lives with her husband, Richard Moore, and dog, Dudley (neither of whom are well trained). When not planning lectures, grading papers, or writing textbook chapters, she can usually be found chatting with the neighbors, fighting the weeds in her garden, or enjoying a fermented beverage at the local pub.



Sarah Salm is a Professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) of the City University of New York, where she teaches microbiology, anatomy and physiology, and general biology. She earned her undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She later moved to New York, working first as a postdoctoral fellow and then an Assistant Research Professor at NYU Langone Medical Center. Her research has covered a range of subjects, from plant virus identification through prostate stem cell characterization. When not focused on the textbook and her classes, Sarah loves to read, hike, and travel.



Deborah Allen is a Professor at Jefferson College in Missouri, where she teaches microbiology as well as several other courses for students entering allied health careers. Her graduate work was in zoology at the University of Oklahoma and in neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University. She participated in cancer research at the University of Arkansas Medical Center before embarking on a career in publishing, working in acquisitions and development for books in the life sciences. She is now thrilled to be working on the other end of the desk with the Nester team. Away from campus, Deborah reads or listens to her favorite Eve Dallas novels, floats the rivers and listens to folk music in the Ozarks, and fully appreciates the local microbes while visiting Missouri wineries.



Although no longer an active member of the author team, Eugene (Gene) Nester wrote the original version of the present text with Evans Roberts and Nancy Pearsall more than 30 years ago. That text, Microbiology: Molecules, Microbes and Man, pioneered the organ system approach to the study of infectious disease, and was developed specifically for allied health sciences. Gene did his undergraduate work at Cornell and received his Ph.D. in microbiology from Case Western University. He then did postdoctoral work in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University with Joshua Lederberg. Following that, he joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, where he remains active as an emeritus member. His laboratory demonstrated that Agrobacterium transfers DNA into plant cellsthe basis for the disease crown galla system of gene transfer that has become a cornerstone of plant biotechnology. In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Australia Prize and the Cetus Prize in Biotechnology, and was elected to fellowship in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the National Academy of Sciences in India.