Robert (bob) K. Ernst PhD

Robert (Bob) K. Ernst, Ph.D., is an Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis in the School of Dentistry and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Medicine. In the fall of 2008, he moved his laboratory from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he was a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a principal investigator with the Northwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (NWRCE) to the University of Maryland.
He received his B.S. from the State University of New York at Oswego (biology and chemistry), an M.A. from SUNY Buffalo (Microbiology), and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (Microbiology) studying retroviral RNA transport, where he was also a fellow in the Myles H. Thaler Center for Retrovirus Research. Subsequently, he was a senior fellow at University of Washington in the laboratory of Samuel I. Miller (Allergy and Infectious Diseases) from 1997 – 2002 before joining the faculty in 2002.