Howard J. Ochman

Howard Ochman is Joseph J. & Jeanne M. Lagowski Regents Professorship in Molecular Bioscience in the Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He originally trained as a population geneticist, but technical advances in molecular biology prompted his switch to studying the organization and evolution of bacterial genomes and for the past three decades he has been investigating molecular evolution and the diversity of interactions among microbes.

Ochman's lab applies experimental, comparative and computational approaches to examine the evolution and adaptation of microbial genomes. Due to their complex and varied interactions as pathogens and commensal constituents of mammalian hosts, our work focuses on genome evolution within enteric bacteria, including E. coli, Shigella and Salmonella. These studies fall into four general areas: dynamics of bacterial genomes; origins and roles of novel bacterial traits; phylogenetic classification and genomic analysis of diversity within bacterial communities and the history of bacterial genomes; and genomic analysis of diversity within bacterial communities.

Prior to joining the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin, Ochman held faculty appointments at the University of Rochester (where he received his Ph.D.), the University of Arizona, and Yale University.