Health Beyond the Blog: Author Q&A Series Features Dr. Jo Handelsman

The Health Storytelling Author Q&A series returns Tuesday March 29 at 6 p.m. Maryn McKenna, Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Human Health, will interview biologist Dr. Jo Handelsman, Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the new book A World Without Soil: The Past, Present and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet (Yale University Press, 2021). Dr. Handelsman previously served as Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering from him in 2011. Her research focuses on understanding the role of diversity in plant and human microbiomes and how this impacts infectious disease. She has a particular focus on soil microbes and how they can contribute to new antibiotics and defeat antibiotic resistance. Out of that interest, she created the Tiny Earth Initiative, which recruits college students into antibiotic discovery by teaching them to isolate soil microbes from their own backyards.

The Author Q&A will be livestreamed on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. To RSVP and receive the links, visit this page: RSVP Link