Graduate student Karen Bowers, from the Wiegel lab,

received the President’s Award for best graduate student poster presentation at the 95th annual American Society for Microbiology Southeastern Branch Meeting in Savannah, GA. Karen’s poster, titled “Natronolimnobius ‘aegyptiacus’ sp. nov., a novel poly-extremophilic archaeon isolated from the lakes of the Wadi An Natrun, Egypt” details the species characterization of multiple strains of a haloalkalithermophilic species of archaeon. In addition to microbiology, Karen has prior degrees in English and education, and spent several years teaching high school. As a master’s student in the lab of Juergen Wiegel, she has worked on characterization of novel bacterial and archaeal species and investigation of bioenergetic properties and adaptive mechanisms of haloalkalithermophilic microorganisms. Additionally, she has served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate courses and as a mentor for undergraduate research and the REU