Originally from Australia, Jillian received her MSc and PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen (Germany). She established her group at the University of Vienna in 2015 and received a tenure-track position in 2016. ©DerKnopfdrücker
We are delighted that CoE Key Researcher Jillian Petersen has been appointed the first female Full Professor at the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) of the University of Vienna.
Jillian and her team investigate beneficial interactions between marine invertebrate animals and their sulfur-oxidizing bacterial symbionts, as well as marine and terrestrial plant-microbe interactions. The goal is to understand how the symbiotic partners establish and maintain their intimate relationship from generation to generation and how these associations evolved in such diverse and widespread habitats, from deep-sea hydrothermal vents to shallow-water seagrass beds.
In the CoE, Jillian leads WP 1.2 on ‘The Influence of Invasive Species on Host-Associated Microbiomes’. The central goal of this work package is to answer fundamental questions about how native and introduced microbiomes interact to influence the ecological and economic outcomes of biological invasions.
Jillian received an ERC Starting Grant in 2018 and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2023, is a Board Member of the FWF and is Editor-in-Chief of the ISME Journal.