EDUCATION
2000. Ph.D. Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia (UGA).
1992. B.A. Wellesley College, History, with concentration in Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
EMPLOYMENT
AND POSITIONS
2007-Present. Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
2007-Present. Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of California Santa Cruz
2004-2007. Assistant Professor, Marine Biology and Fisheries Division, RSMAS, University of Miami. Secondary Appointment, Department of Biology, University of Miami
2003 – 2004. Visiting Scientist, Station Biologique Roscoff, France.
2002– 2003. NSF Microbial Biology/UCSD Post-doctoral Fellow, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
TEACHING
2007, 2008, 2011. Biodiversity & Genomics section, CMORE/Agouron Microbial Oceanography: Genomes to Biomes Summer Course, Univ. of Hawaii.
2007.
MBF570 Marine Microbial Ecology: Genomic Approaches (grad. &
undergrad. level), UM.
2005. Honors Thesis students, University of Miami
(UM) Department of Biology.
2002. Guest Lectures for Microbial Ecology (graduate level),
UCSD.
2002 –
2008. Mentor for Presidential Fellow from Chile (undergraduate
laboratory internship) and Diplomstudent from Inst. Chem.
Biol. Mar. Environ., University of Oldenburg, DE.
1993.
Teaching Assistant, Fundamentals of Ecology (undergraduate
level), MIT.
1992 – 1994. Teaching Fellow, Inorganic Chemistry
(undergraduate level), Harvard.
OCEANOGRAPHIC CRUISES
R/V Western Flyer, North Pacific, 2009, Chief Scientist
R/V Walton Smith, Straits of Florida, 2007, Chief Scientist
R/V Walton Smith, Straits of Florida, 2006, Chief Scientist
R/V Walton Smith, Straits of Florida, 2005
R/V Oceanus, Sargasso Sea, 2002
R/V Endeavor, Sargasso Sea, 2001
R/V Endeavor, Sargasso Sea, 2001
R/V New Horizon, Southern California Bight, 1998
R/V Oceanus, Sargasso Sea, 1998
R/V Oceanus, Sargasso Sea, 1997
PUBLICATIONS
AND MANUSCRIPTS
please see publications
FELLOWSHIPS/GRANTS/AWARDS
2004 - present Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Young Investigator
in Marine Science
2003 AAAS Women’s International Science Collaboration
Award
2000-2002 NSF Post-doctoral Fellow in Microbial Biology
1996-1999 NASA Earth Systems Science Graduate Fellowship
1996-1999 Regents’ Award, University of Georgia, awarded
annually.
1988 Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association
Award
PROFESSIONAL
ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE
2011 Session Co-chair. 111th American Society of Microbiology General Meeting.
2011 Session Chair. 20th Western Photosynthesis Conference. Asilomar, CA, 6-9 Jan.
2010-pres. Board Member, International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME).
2010-pres. Scientific Advisory Board Member, Joint Genome Institute.
2010-pres. Nominating Committee D.C. White Award, American Society of Microbiology.
2010 Co-chair. Eukaryotic Genome Annotation Workshop, Canadian Institute For Advanced Research, Halifax, Canada, 2-5 June.
2010 Session Co-Chair. Ecology & Diversity of Aquatic Protists: Advances & Methodologies, ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, 25-30 February, Portland, OR, USA (with A.E. Allen and E. Demir).
2010-pres. Editorial Board, The ISME Journal. 2010 Invited Participant, Microbiological Targets for Ocean Observing Laboratories (Micro-TOOLs) 2010 Workshop, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CA, 13-15 January. 2009 Invited Participant, American Academy of Microbiology Colloquium on the Rare Biosphere, San Francisco, CA, 27-29 April. 2009 Session Co-Chair. Ecology & Diversity of Aquatic Protists: Advances & Methodologies, ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, January 25-30, Nice, France.2008 Invited Participant, National Academies Keck Future Initiatives Conference on Complex Systems. Newport Beach, CA 12-15 November.
2008 Invited Participant, US Department of Energy Genomes to Life Roadmap Knowledgebase development workshop. Bethesda, Maryland 27-30 May.
2008 Invited Participant, US Department of Energy Cycling Workshop. Denver, Colorado March.
2007-pres. Scientific Advisory Board, Integrated Microbial Genomics-Educational site (IMG-EDU).
2006-2007 Scientific Committee. Metagenomics 2007,
San Diego CA.
2004-2006 Co-Chair. Gordon Research Conference Series: Marine
Microbes, 23-28 July 2006, Biddeford ME.
2006- Scientific Advisory Board. Community Cyberinfrastructure
for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis
(CAMERA).
2006 Session Co-Chair. Linking Ecology and Diversity of Aquatic
Protists: Advances and Methodologies. ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences
Mtg. Honolulu, HI.
2005 Invited Participant. International Census of Marine Microbes
Informatics and Data Management Working Group. September 24-26,
2005. Woods Hole, MA.
2005 Session Co-Chair. Ecology of Aquatic Pathogens in a Changing
Environment, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
Summer Mtg, Spain.
2005 Invited Panelist. Women in Science Symposium. Rosenstiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. May 31 2005. Miami,
FL.
2005 Invited Participant. International Census of Marine Microbes
Open Oceans and Coastal Systems Workshop. May 10-11, 2005.
Honolulu, HI.
2004 Invited Participant. Horizontal Gene Flow in Microbial
Communities. Sponsored by NSF & DOE. June.
PROFESSIONAL
SOCIETIES
American
Society of Limnology and Oceanography
American Society of Microbiology
American Association for the Advancement of Science
International Society for Microbial Ecology
INVITED SEMINARS, TALKS & CONTRIBUTIONS
2011 Monier A, Sudek S & AZ Worden. Targeted "-Omic" Approaches for Microbial Ecology Reveal Parallel Host-Virus Gene Exchanges in Eukaryotes and Bacteria. 111th General Meeting American Society of Microbiology, New Orleans, LA 21-24 May.
2011 Worden AZ. Picophytoplankton and Carbon Fixation in Changing Seas. 111th General Meeting American Society of Microbiology, New Orleans, LA 21-24 May.
2010 Worden AZ. Illuminating the black box: marine eukaryotic picophytoplankton by targeted metagenomics & more. ISME-13 (International Society for Microbial Ecology Congress), Seattle, WA, USA, 22-27 Aug 2010.
2010 Worden AZ. Genomes of uncultured protists. Gordon Research Conference on Marine Microbes, Tilton NH, 4-9 July.
2010 Worden AZ. From comparative genomics to the sea. 14th International Conference on the cell and molecular biology of Chlamydomonas. Norton, MA, 6-10 June.
2010 Worden AZ. Flowing across the ocean: understanding algal roles in global CO2 uptake. Invited XXV Celebration Lecture, Opening Plenary, International Society for Advanced Cytometry, Seattle, WA, 8-12 May.
2010 Worden AZ. Evolution and adaptation in the eukaryotic phototroph Micromonas. Invited Talk, Society for General Microbiology, Edinburgh, UK, 29 Mar-1 Apr. - British Airways strike resulted in not making it to meeting.
2010 Worden AZ. Marine algal evolution, ecology & roles in global CO2 uptake. Joint Genome Institute Annual User Meeting, Walnut Creek, CA, 24-26 Mar.
2010 Worden AZ. 22nd Annual Cornelius Bernardus van Niel Memorial Lecture, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University. Mosaic seascapes: unicellular eukaryotes and the marine carbon cycle. Monterey, CA, 12 March
2010 Worden AZ. Diversity, ecology and genomics of tiny photosynthetic eukaryotes. Moss Landing Marine Labs, Moss Landing, CA, 11 March
2010 Worden AZ and coauthors. Reshaping metagenomics for investigating eukaryotic phytoplankton in the natural environment (Invited talk for session "New Methods and Applications for Metagenomics and Metatranscriptomics in Biological Oceanography"). ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting. Portland, OR, USA, 22-26 Feb.
2009 Worden AZ. The marine carbon cycle, phytoplankton genomes and developing the field of ecosystems biology. Pacific Northwest National Labs, Richland, WA, 1 April.
2009 Worden AZ. Oceans of protists and the carbon cycle. Genomics: GTL Contractor-Grantee Workshop VII and USDA-DOE Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy Awardee Workshop, N. Bethesda, MD, 8-11 February.
2009 Worden AZ. An ocean of protists: diversity and ecology of
photosynthetic picoeukaryotes. Department of Botany Seminar Series, University
of British Columbia. 20 Jan.
2009 Worden AZ. An ocean of protists: diversity, ecology and a taste of genomic
insights tothe photosynthetic community. 18th Western Photosynthesis Conference,
Pacific Grove, CA, 8-11 Jan.
2008 Worden AZ. Genomic approaches to the ecology and biology of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes. Marine Biology Seminar Series, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. La Jolla, CA 7 Nov.
2008 Worden AZ. The importance of marine picoeukaryotes and the search for lost time. Metagenomics 2008. San Diego, CA 4-7 Nov.
2008 Worden AZ. Ecology of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes: genomic and metagenomic perspectives. American Society of Microbiology General Mtg. Boston MA, 1-5 June.
2008 Worden AZ. Genomic approaches to the ecology & biology of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes. Integrated Microbial Biodiversity meeting of the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR). Quebec, CA May.
2008 Worden AZ. The biology & ecology of marine photosynthetic picoeukaryotes. Annual Meeting of the German Protozoology Society, Plenary talk, March Rostok DE
2008 Worden AZ. Metagenomic approaches to the ecology of marine eukaryotes. Human Microbiome Meeting, Banbury Center. Cold Spring Harbor, NY March.
2007 Worden AZ. Picoeukaryotes: genomes, ecology & contributions to marine carbon cycling. Seminar, University of Madras, Chennai, IN. 5 January.
2006 Worden AZ. Carbon cycles & marine food webs - considering picoeukaryote roles. Seminar, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Moss Landing, CA, US. 22 August.
2006 Worden AZ. Picophytoeukaryotic dynamics, diversity and genomics. Gordon Research Conference on Marine Microbes, Biddeford, ME, US. 23-28 July 2006.
2006 Worden AZ. Picophytoeukaryote ecology and diversity. Seminar, Dept. of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, US. 2 May.
2006 Worden AZ. Phototrophic picoplankton: diversity and ecology in the oceans. Seminar, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO), Yerseke, NL. 8 March.
2006 Worden AZ. Picophytoeukaryote ecology and diversity. Seminar, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL. 7 March.
2006 Worden AZ. Through the Looking Glass. Talk, Azam Symposium: Status of Bacterioplankton Ecology. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, US. February 16-17.
2006 Worden AZ. Marine picoplankton - phytoplankton, bacteria & their environmental significance. National Tropical Botanical Garden Physicians' Course, Coconut Grove, FL, US. January 26-28.
2005 Worden AZ. Global carbon cycles & marine food webs: the role of flow cytometry and picophytoplankton. Beckman Coulter BioPharma Invited Seminar Series, Kendall, FL, US. October.
2005 Worden AZ. Diversity, ecology and genomics of marine picophytoplankton. Talk, Marine Microbial Communities Diversity Symposium, Renessee, NL. September.
2005 Worden AZ. Microbial Expression: A key to environmental dynamics of picoeukaryotes. Talk, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Aquatic Sciences Meeting. Salt Lake City, UT, US. February 20-25.
2005 Worden AZ. Integrating pathogen dynamics & trophic interactions in the marine environment. Talk, Oceans and Human Health Center 1st Annual Science Symposium, Miami, FL, US. January.
2005 Brock Biology of Microorganisms 11th Edition. Selected images.
2003 Worden AZ. Marine picoeukaryote biodiversity and ecology. Seminar, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, US. March.
2003 Worden AZ. The world's smallest eukaryotes: importance to marine ecosystems? Seminar, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, US. February.
2002 Azam F & AZ Worden. Microbial control of marine ecosystem structure and function: implications for biodiversity and conservation. Plenary talk, Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, US.
2002 Worden AZ. Investigating the world's smallest eukaryotes: diversity and ecology of marine picoeukaryotes. Seminar, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, US. November.
2002 Worden AZ. Assessing the dynamics and ecology of marine picophytoplankton: the importance of the eukaryotic component. Talk, PICODIV Workshop, Roscoff, FR. July.
2002 Brock Biology of Microorganisms 10th Edition. Selected TEM (Ostreococcus) and epifluoresence (environmental detection of Prochlorococcus ecotypes) images.
OTHER TALKS & PRESENTATIONS
2011 Simmons MP & AZ Worden. Distribution of novel introns in the marine eukaryotic green alga Micromonas. Poster, 111th General Meeting American Society of Microbiology, New Orleans, LA 21-24 May.
2011 McRose D & AZ Worden. Growth and gene expression responses of two Micromonas species to thiamine deprivation suggests disparate metabolic capabilities. Poster, 111th General Meeting American Society of Microbiology, New Orleans, LA 21-24 May.
2010 Treusch A, Vergin K, O’Malley R, Demir E, Worden AZ, Behrenfeld M, Carlson C & SJ Giovannoni. Dynamics in bacterioplankton and phytoplankton community structure at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site. Poster, ISME-13, Seattle, WA, USA, 22-27 August.
2010 McRose D & AZ Worden. B Vitamins and phytoplankton: a study of gene expression and physiology in the prasinophyte Micromonas. Poster, Integrated Microbial Biodiversity Annual meeting, CIFAR, Seattle, WA, USA, 19-22 August
2010 Monier A & AZ Worden. Unearthing ancestral roots: marine protists and the tree of life. Poster, Gordon Research Conference on Marine Microbes, Tilton NH, 4-9 July.
2010 Treusch A, Vergin K, O'Malley R, Demir E, Worden AZ, Behrenfeld MJ, Carlson CA & S Giovannoni. Bacterioplankton and phytoplankton community structure dynamics at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study Site. Poster, ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting. Portland, OR, USA, 22-26 Feb.
2010 Beszteri B, Vergin K, Treusch A, Li W, Norbeck A, Nicora C, Monier A, Carlson CA, Green J, Worden AZ & S Giovannoni. Comparative metagenomics of microbial communities from the Sargasso Sea during the spring bloom and summer stratification. Poster, ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting. Portland, OR, USA, 22-26 Feb. 2010 Skoning HA, Monier A, McRose D, Wilcox H & AZ Worden. Prasinophytae phylogenetic characterization along a transect from Monterey Bay to oligotrophic waters and application to 454-TAG sequence analysis. Poster, ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting. Portland, OR, USA, 22-26 Feb. 2010 Demir E, Cuvelier ML, Skoning HA, Zehr J & AZ Worden. Niche differentiation between two Ostreococcus clades. Talk, ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting. Portland, OR, USA, 22-26 Feb. 2009 Giovannoni SJ, Treusch AH, Carlson C A, Vergin K, Burton, RM & AZ Worden. Microbial community structure in the ocean surface layer. Invited Talk (by S. Giovannoni), ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Nice, FR 25-29 January.2009 Cuvelier ML, Demir E, Binder BJ & AZ Worden. Diversity and community dynamics of small eukaryotes in the sargasso sea. Talk (by ML Cuvelier), ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Nice, FR 25-29 January.
2009 Worden AZ, Demir E & ML Cuvelier. From the tropics to poles: ecological and genomic variation of the widespread prasinophyte Micromonas. Poster, ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Nice, FR 25-29 January.
2009 Demir E, Everroad RC, Welsh RM, Pennington JT, Chavez F & AZ Worden. Phytoplankton community transitions across contrasting nutrient regimes. Poster, ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Nice, FR 25-29 January.
2008 Cuvelier ML, Demir E, Binder BJ & AZ Worden. Community composition of picoeukaryotes in open ocean and coastal waters. Poster, ASM General Meeting, Boston, 1-5 June
2008 McDonald SM & AZ Worden. A Comparison of Flagella Proteins in Micromonas pusilla (Prasinophyceae) and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Poster, ASM General Meeting Boston MA, 1-5 June.
2008 Welsh RM, Cuvelier ML & AZ Worden (2008). The application of flow cytometry to enumeration and sizing of marine phytoplankton populations. Poster, Prochlorococcus Symposium, Cambridge MA 30-31 May.
2008 Worden AZ. Phytoplankton community dynamics at a tropically influenced time-series transect. Talk, Prochlorococcus Symposium, Cambridge MA 30-31 May.
2008 Simmons MP, Rombauts S, Van de Peer Y, Bhattacharya D & AZ Worden. A randomized approach to evaluating gene characteristics and overlap in the green lineage marine alga Micromonas pusilla. Poster, Joint Genome Institute Annual User Meeting Walnut Creek CA 26-28 March.
2007 Worden AZ & ML Cuvelier. Ecology & genomics of marine picoplanktonic prasinophytes. Jacques Monod Conference: Environmental Genomics, Roscoff, FR.
2007 Derelle E, Worden AZ, Grigoriev I & H Moreau. Novel similarities in genome structure of diverse prasinophytes. Jacques Monod Conference: Environmental Genomics, Roscoff, FR.
2007 Worden AZ, McDonald SM, Von Dassow P, Not F, Foulon E, Bhattacharya D & ML Cuvelier. Whole genome sequencing of Micromonas pusilla, a ubiquitous* picoeukaryotic phytoplankter. 2nd Annual JGI User Mtg., Walnut Creek, CA.
2006 Worden AZ, Armbrust EV, Bhattacharya D, Moreau H, Simon N, Van de Peer Y, Aerts A & I Grigoriev. Complete genome sequencing of two picoeukaryotic marine primary producers: the Micromonas Project. Marine Genomics, Sorrento, Italy.
2006 Cuvelier ML, Binder BJ, Heidelberg JF & AZ Worden. Ecology of picoeukaryotes in open-ocean environments. Gordon Research Conference on Marine Microbes, Biddeford, ME.
2006 Not F, Viprey M, Vaulot D, Worden AZ, Moon-van der Staay SY & R Massana. Diversity of "Radiolarian" sequences in the pico size fraction. Gordon Research Conference on Marine Microbes, Biddeford, ME.
2006 Hilton J, Not F, Guigand C & AZ Worden. Seasonal variations of Gulf Stream picoplankton communities. ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Mtg., Honolulu, HI.
2006 Cuvelier ML, Armbrust EV, Bhattacharya D, Heidelberg JF, Moreau H, Simon N & AZ Worden. Comparative Genomics of picoEukaryotic Marine Primary Producers: An Introduction to the Micromonas Project. 1st Annual JGI User Mtg., Walnut Creek, CA.
2006 Not F, Heidelberg J, Gausling R & AZ Worden. Vertical distribution of picoeukaryotic diversity in the open ocean. ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Mtg., Honolulu, HI.
2004 Worden AZ, Bartlett D & F Azam. Dynamics of Vibrio cholerae in marine systems. 10th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, Cancun, MX.
2002 Worden AZ, Azam F, Hyldig-Nielson JJ, Stender H & R Gausling. Analysis of Sargasso Sea microbial communities by fluorescence in situ hybridization using Peptide Nucleic Acid probes. American Society of Microbiology 102nd General Meeting, Salt
Lake City, Utah.
2002 Worden AZ & B Palenik. Picoeukaryote abundance, diversity, growth and grazing mortality at a California Current monitoring site. ASLO Ocean Sciences Mtg., Honolulu, HI.
2001 Worden AZ & B Palenik. Picoeukaryote diversity and physiology at a coastal monitoring site. 9th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, Amsterdam, Nl.
2001 Worden AZ & BJ Binder. Growth regulation of rRNA content of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus (marine cyanobacteria) measured by whole-cell hybridization of rRNA-targeted peptide nucleic acids. VIIth Cyanobacterial Workshop, Asilomar CA.
2001 Worden AZ & BJ Binder. Growth and grazing mortality dynamics of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus in the Sargasso Sea and California Current. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Mtg., Albuquerque NM.
1998 Worden AZ, Chisholm SW & BJ Binder. A new technique for In Situ rRNA probing of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus. VIth Cyanobacterial Workshop, Asilomar CA.
1998 Worden AZ, Chisholm SW & BJ Binder. Application of rRNA-targeted peptide nucleic acids in marine photosynthetic picoplankton. 8th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, Halifax, NS.
1997 Worden AZ & BJ Binder. Flow cytometric analysis of stream bacterial populations. North American Benthological Society Annual Mtg., San Marcos TX.