Keynote Speaker
Dr. Joan Bennett
Professor of Plant Biology & Pathology and Associate VP for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; Past President, ASM
Title: “The Katrina Catastrophe: Floods, Fungi and Public Health.”
Joan W. Bennett is currently a faculty member and administrator at Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, where she is a Professor II in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and Associate Vice President for the Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. She spent most of her career in New Orleans where she was a professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Tulane University as well as a collaborator with the Southern Regional Research Center, a branch of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Her research has focused on mycotoxin-producing molds, particularly the genetics and biosynthesis of aflatoxins by species of Aspergillus. She is past president of the American Society for Microbiology and the Society for Industrial Microbiology, and is currently Vice President of the International Union of Microbiological Societies. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. Professor Bennett’s personal experiences with the Katrina catastrophe led her to seek employment at an “above sea level” university. She moved to New Jersey in 2006 and now does research on “the molds of Katrina” that she isolated from her own flooded home several weeks after the storm.
ABSTRACT
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005 and caused a storm surge that breached several parts of New Orleans flood protection system. The ensuing water incursion directly affected 80% of the built structures in the city. Even residents who were not flooded directly experienced enormous economic, social and cultural dislocation. In the aftermath of the storm, considerable attention was paid to the possible public health risks from infectious diseases and toxic chemicals. The fungal population explosion accompanying the widespread flooding received far less attention. This presentation will give a personal and “myco-centric” overview of the Hurricane Katrina experience, detailing the possible contribution of filamentous fungi to problems in public health.