Susan Pfiffner
Dr. Susan Pfiffner is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and a microbial ecologist at the Centers for Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Pfiffner specializes in the microbial and geochemical evaluation of subterranean environments to determine which physiological types of microorganisms, as well as, which metabolic or degradative capabilities and geochemical processes exist in sediments and groundwater.
The focus of her work is on:
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Dr. Pfiffner goes deep into the Earth looking for life in the water of the gold mines of South Africa and in mines or drilling sites in the Canadian permafrost region. She examines microorganisms and how they exist in extreme environments in some cases, two or more kilometers below land surface.
Dr. Pfiffner leads the Biogeochemical Educational Experiences - South Africa (BEE-SA) which is a National Science Foundation funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. She oversees administration, recruitment and selection of students, working with mentors on the research and lecture agenda, coordinating activities with the University of the Free State, and the mining companies, and participating as a faculty mentor. Dr. Susan M. Pfiffner and Ms. Kimberly Davis also of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, organized and conducted the workshop in collaboration with Profs. D. Litthauer and E. van Heerden of the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, University of the Free State (UOVS), Bloemfontein, South Africa. The format of the workshop consisted of a sampling trip underground, lectures by the mentors, laboratory sessions, and computer time. Emphasis was placed on hands-on laboratory and field exercises, with lectures providing background information. Students assisted the mentors in collection of the samples, as well as in gathering and recording temperature, pH, conductivity, and CHEMet (dissolved oxygen, sulfide, iron, ammonia, chloride) data. The samples consisted of fissure water, biofilm and sediments (from the mine floor around the sampling sites).
One of the goals of this international partnership is to foster science and technology collaboration between the South African and U.S. communities through the development of an undergraduate research experience workshop. This workshop provided the basis for the development of an undergraduate exchanges program to facilitate the transfer of innovative technologies that would lead to an increase in the retention of minorities in fields of Earth and Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Engineering.
Dr. Pfiffner received her Ph.D. in 1991 from Florida State University; she has more than 100 presentations at scientific meetings and published abstracts, 42 publications, a 1996 R&D 100 award for the development of PHOSter, and two US patents 5480549 and 05753109 (Apparatus and Method for Phosphate Accelerated Bioremediation, PHOSter). She is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, American Geophysical Union, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Association for Women In Science, and is on the Science Advisory Committee for the Integrated Petroleum Environmental Consortium (IPEC).
SUSAN M. PFIFFNER
Research Associate Professor
Center for Environmental Biotechnology
The University of Tennessee
10515 Research Dr., Ste. 300, Knoxville, TN 37932-2575
pfiffner@utk.edu
