Halmos Faculty and Students Co-Publish New Journal Article

This summer, Halmos faculty members Louis Nemzer, Ph.D. and Robert Smith, Ph.D. with Halmos undergraduate and graduate students published a journal article entitled, “The public and private benefit of an impure public good determines the sensitivity of bacteria to population collapse in a snowdrift game.”

Published in Environmental Microbiology, the paper identifies the conditions that facilitate the survival of cooperative microbial populations and has implications in understanding the stability of both beneficial (soils, sediments, gut microbiome) and detrimental (infectious) microbial communities.

“One goal of this research is to better understand the conditions that are most likely to lead to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria” said Dr. Nemzer. “This work helps shed light on when mixed populations of resistant and normal bacteria are most sensitive to treatment with antibiotic medications.”

The Halmos students, who are also co-authors, are from both the undergraduate and graduate programs. The biology undergraduate student authors are Aimee Doiron, Rodrigo Muzquiz, Marla C. Fortoul,

Meghan Haas, Tom Abraham, and Khadija Chowdhury.  The biology graduate student authors are Rebecca Quinn and Ivana Barraza.

For more information: doi:10.1111/1462‐2920.14796