Mark Achtman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mark Achtman
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Mark Achtman in 2015, portrait via the Royal Society
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| Children | Ariel Achtman, Jane Achtman |
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| Thesis | A Genetic Study of the F-Factor (1969) |
| Doctoral advisor | Alvin J. Clark |
| Other academic advisors | Thomas Trautner |
Mark Achtman is a very smart scientist who studies tiny living things called bacteria. He used to be a professor at Warwick Medical School, which is part of the University of Warwick in the UK. He is known for his important work on how different types of bacteria spread and cause sickness.
Contents
Becoming a Scientist
Mark Achtman went to several universities to become a scientist.
- He earned his first degree (a Bachelor of Science) in 1963 from McGill University. He studied bacteriology and immunology there.
- Next, he went to the University of Manitoba. In 1965, he earned his Master of Science degree. His research looked at how certain viruses, called adenoviruses, can make red blood cells clump together.
- Finally, he completed his highest degree, a PhD, in 1969. He got this from the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD research was about something called a "bacterial fertility factor." This is a tiny piece of DNA that helps bacteria share genetic information.
Studying Bacteria
Mark Achtman's main research interest is the population genetics of bacteria. This means he studies how groups of bacteria change and spread over time. He focuses on bacteria that can make people sick. These are called pathogens.
Bacteria He Studied
He has studied many different types of bacteria, including:
- Vibrio cholerae: This bacterium causes a severe illness called cholera.
- Salmonella: This often causes food poisoning.
- Yersinia pestis: This is the bacterium that caused the historical disease known as the plague.
- Neisseria meningitidis: This can cause a serious brain infection called meningitis.
- Escherichia coli (often called E. coli): Some types of E. coli can cause food poisoning.
- Helicobacter pylori: This bacterium lives in the stomach and can cause ulcers.
- Bordetella: This group includes bacteria that cause whooping cough.
Understanding Bacteria's Genes
Mark Achtman helped create a method called multilocus sequence typing. This is a clever way to tell different strains (or types) of bacteria apart by looking at specific parts of their DNA. It helps scientists understand how bacteria are related and how they spread. His research has received money from important groups like the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Awards and Recognition
In 2015, Mark Achtman was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. It means he is recognized as one of the best scientists in the country.
Why He Was Honored
His nomination for this award said that he:
- Helped start the study of how bacterial populations change over time.
- Did important studies on the types of bacteria that caused outbreaks of meningitis in Africa.
- Carried out amazing and new studies on Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that lives in the human gut. He showed that this bacterium has been with humans for a very long time. His genetic studies of this bacterium helped scientists trace the ancient journeys of humans around the world. This work even helped understand how languages spread!
- Also did smart genetic studies of Yersinia pestis to learn about where plague outbreaks started and how they spread across the world.
