Brian P. Higgins (Ph.D. 2006) earned his B.S. at the University of  Maryland-College Park in 2000 and then entered our Microbiology Graduate Program, conducting his dissertation research in Anna Karls’ lab. Brian published a PNAS article [Higgins, Carpenter, & Karls, 2007, “Chromosomal context directs high-frequency precise excision of IS492 in Pseudoalteromonas atlantica”] which was awarded the Outstanding Paper of the Year by the UGA chapter of Sigma Xi.  Brian has another first author paper submitted to the Journal of Bacteriology and an additional manuscript in preparation.  Brian did postdoctoral research with Sarah Covert at UGA (2006-2007) on the fungus Fusarium circinatum, the causative agent of Pitch canker in many pine species.  He then moved to a postdoctoral position with Laura Landweber at Princeton University where he is working on DNA rearrangements in cellular development of ciliates.