Joe Eugene Lepo PhD, MS, BS

Dr. Joe Eugene Lepo is Professor of Microbiology in the Biology Department and conducts research within the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation (CEDB) at UWF, where he also is Director of the Wetlands Research Laboratory. He’s a former Fulbright Scholar and a member of UWF’s Five-Million Dollar Research Club, which honors faculty who have won more than $5 million in extramural research funding. Such projects include regional environmental monitoring, e.g., South Palafox Marina in Pensacola, water quality assessment in Gulf Islands National Seashore, fecal source tracking in environmental waters for Escambia County and healthy beach sampling in Okaloosa County in addition to numerous national projects such as testing environmentally safe biocides, studying microbial biofilms and analyzing microbial communities affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

He also has conducted research on environmental issues in China, is appointed as Visiting Professor at Hunan Agricultural University and facilitates visits to UWF by Chinese academics. Lepo’s recent research examines microorganisms that respond to or affect environmental health or ecosystem functions. Another project, “Phytopathogens as Agents of Bioterrorism,” developed methods to detect and assess risk of introduced phytopathogenic microorganisms on food and fiber production. He’s also interested in the environmental effects of both hydrocarbon pollution and of remediation efforts on polluted sites; and environmental water quality, particularly regarding microbiological-, nutrients-, and hydrocarbon-contaminatio