Laboratory Exercises in Microbiology

About the Author

Nathan Rigel

Nathan W. Rigel is an associate professor in the Department of Biology at Hofstra University. Since starting his lab in 2013, Dr. Rigel’s research has focused on the various protein trafficking pathways of Acinetobacter. While at Hofstra, Dr. Rigel has taught courses in microbiology, cell and molecular biology, bioinformatics, and bacterial genetics. Dr. Rigel completed his undergraduate studies in Microbiology at the Pennsylvania State University. He then moved south and earned his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while studying the accessory SecA2 protein export system found in mycobacteria. In 2009, Dr. Rigel returned north to study assembly of outer membrane proteins in Gram-negative bacteria as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Originally from a small town in central Pennsylvania, Dr. Rigel now lives in Queens with his wife and son. He can be reached at nathan.w.rigel@hofstra.edu.

Javier Izquierdo

Javier A. Izquierdo is an associate professor at Hofstra University, where he started his lab in 2014. Dr. Izquierdo received his BS in Biology at Case Western Reserve University. He earned his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied soil microbial ecology, and where he developed a passion for teaching microbiology thanks to many wonderful mentors. He went on to Dartmouth College for his postdoctoral work on the microbial ecology of cellulose degradation by anaerobic thermophiles. He then served as Biofuels Program Manager at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina, but his interests in teaching and mentoring research students brought him back to academia. His research group at Hofstra continues to work on understanding the ecology and physiology of cellulolytic microbes, as well as studying root-associated microbiomes of plants growing under stressful conditions. At Hofstra, he has taught courses in general microbiology, genomics and bioinformatics, and environmental microbiology. He enjoys going on long walks along the coast or the mountains with his wife and daughters. He is also a singer-songwriter and an avid photographer. He can be reached at javier.a.izquierdo@hofstra.edu.