Karen Gibb

Professor Gibb has made major scientific contributions to the field of applied microbiology. She was first to identify the uncultivable phytoplasma pathogens in Australian crops and first in the world to physically map the genome of these pathogens. She shared this knowledge nationally and internationally and showed these pathogens were associated with several mystery diseases, saving industry millions of dollars. She and her team have also developed novel approaches to track biological and chemical environmental contaminants, some now adopted by government. At Charles Darwin University (CDU), Professor Gibb leads the Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology Unit, and is Director of the Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods. Her personal scientific output includes 136 refereed papers, over 3,000 citations and a h-index of 32. She has been Chief Investigator on $6M of research projects and in 2006 was awarded the Northern Territory Research and Innovation Tropical Knowledge Award for Research.