Welcome to the Department of Microbiology!

The department is a component of the College of Arts and Sciences. Its faculty members are responsible for teaching microbiology to students in many colleges of the University of Tennessee. Microbiology is one of three Life Sciences departments composing The Division of Biology within the College of Arts and Sciences. The three Departments of the Biology Division are: Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; and Microbiology. The division seeks to provide high-quality education, perform research in the life sciences, provide advanced graduate training as well as provide public service to the region and the nation. Faculty and graduate students interact with research scientists in many Colleges of the University, at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The undergraduate program in Arts and Sciences leads to a B.S. in Microbiology, and the graduate program leads to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The department is an active participant in several interdisciplinary and interdepartmental programs: Genome Science and Technology; Comparative and Experimental Medicine; and the Center for Environmental Biotechnology. 

Departmental Mission

The Department of Microbiology at UT Knoxville is dedicated to providing the quality education, through both teaching and research, necessary to meet the needs of this growing field.  Our faculty members aggressively pursue research in many areas of the science: immunology; virology; microbial ecology and pathology; microbial genetics; and others.  Research projects are continuously conducted through collaboration with and support from various prominent sources, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and NASA, among others.

Undergraduate students gain valuable experience in the lab by working under one of the professors; faculty also work extensively with post-graduate level students, often publishing numerous articles on their collaborative experimentation and study.  Focus may be on such notable areas as herpes virus or coronavirus research,  on studying the impact of viruses on marine and freshwater food webs, or on sequencing genes in pathogenic fungi.

Contact Information

Department of Microbiology
Head: Jeffrey M. Becker
M409 Walters Life Sciences Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-0845

Phone: 865-974-3441
TDD/TTY: 865-974-2130
Fax: 865-974-4007
Email: microbiology@utk.edu