Mary Lidstrom PhD

Mary Lidstrom is the Vice Provost for Research, a Professor in Chemical Engineering and in Microbiology and holds the Frank Jungers Chair of Engineering at the University of Washington. She is a microbial physiologist recognized for her work on bacteria that grow on one-carbon compounds. Her work spans basic microbial physiology, natural complex microbial communities, and biotechnological applications.

Lidstrom attended Oregon State University for her B.S. degree in Microbiology, then the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her PhD in 1977. After post-doctoral work at the University of Sheffield in England, she was on the faculty at the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the California Institute of Technology before returning to the University of Washington in 1995. She has served as Vice Provost for Research since 2005, except for the 2010/11 academic year, when she was Interim Provost.