Sarah Lebeis

An internationally recognized expert, Sarah Lebeis investigates how plants and microbes each contribute to host microbiome assembly. Her work focuses on microbial chemotaxis and microbial survival and seeks to positively affect food production to meet increasing demand. Lebeis is an associate professor of plant, soil, and microbial sciences at Michigan State University. She earned a PhD in microbiology and molecular genetics from Emory University in Atlanta. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina, Lebeis worked to sequence the DNA of bacteria from root systems of more than 600 plants, a study that resulted in papers published in Nature and Science.