UNC Chapel Hill, Microbiology & Immunology

Benjamin Parker, PhD

I got a late start to science. I graduated from Brown University with a creative writing degree, and worked in the film industry before returning to school for biology. I took post-baccalaureate courses at The University of Texas at Austin, where I studied opportunistic honey bee pathogens in Dr. Nancy Moran’s lab. I completed my PhD here at UNC in Dr. Virginia L. Miller’s lab, where I characterized Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence factors. I am now a post-doc in Dr. Benjamin Parker’s lab, where I study host-microbe symbioses. I love teaching, and I know the SPIRE program will help me combine my science and communications backgrounds in both the lab and the classroom.