Training the next scientific generation - A tribute to Terrance J. Beveridge

摘要

Most scientific engagements generate a contribution. Some contributions are modest, others significant. The contributions of Terry Beveridge (affectionately known as TJB) fall into the 'significant' category. His scientific achievements include authorship on more than 260 peer reviewed publications and the receipt of numerous prestigious awards including a Killam Research Fellowship and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Steacie Award. Long before interdisciplinarystudies became fashionable, Terry combined the tools and theories of chemistry, physics, and geology with basic microbiology to ask scientific questions and to interpret results. He saw minute patterns embedded within obvious findings and more importantly, embedded within the less obvious. Terry was genuinely amazed at the marvelous activities, functions and structures of microorganisms and was eager to share his knowledge and enthusiasm of the microbial world with anyone interested in learning. Indeed,many of the concepts described in this special issue of Geobiologyhzvc been inspired by a question or comment, which Terry posed to the authors. But as impressive as they are, Terry's impact extends far beyond his scientific contributions. Terry has inspired and mentored a generation of scientific minds whose research covers a broad range of microbiological disciplines, from diagenesis to pathogenesis. If fitness can be denned as the number of progeny produced over a given period of time, then Terry was certainly 'fit'. As an indication of the depth of Terry's influence on microbiology, this introduction will outline the current interests of some of the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who trained and learned in Terry's laboratory, and how he influenced their academic research interests.