THOMAS L. KIEFT

Phone: 505-835-5321 Fax:505 835-5668
email: tkieft@nmt.edu
http://www.nmt.edu/~biology/kieft.html

Academic and Professional History

Ph.D. Biology, 1983, University of New Mexico
B.S.   Biology, 1978, New Mexico Highlands University
B.A. Biology, 1973, Carleton College 08/85 - Present: Faculty member (Professor since 1993), Biol. Dept., New Mexico Tech
02/98 - 08/00: Assoc. V-P for Research & Economic Development, New Mexico Tech
01/97 - 12/97: Sabbatical Leave, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
09/83 - 08/85: Visiting Assistant Research Microbiologist, Plant and Soil Biology Dept., University of California, Berkeley, CA

Dr. Tom Kieft is a researcher and educator at New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology (New Mexico Tech).    Kieft's research focus as an environmental microbioloist is on the metabolic activities, diversity, and community structure of microorganisms in extreme environments, including terrestrial subsurface environments, desert soils, and thermal springs.   He and his students have studied the effects of nutrient stress on subsurface microorganisms and the effects of moisture limitation on microorganisms in subsurface vadose zone and desert soils.   He has also researched and published papers on biological ice nucleation activity and molecular approaches for detecting pathogens in environmental samples.   He was a funded investigator in the Department of Energy's Subsurface Science Program and Natural and Accelerated Bioremediation Program for over 15 years. He has been directly involved in research in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand Basin since 1997 and he is an investigator on the NSF LExEn project on South African Ultradeep Mines. He and his students use culture-dependent and culture-independent, molecular biological approaches to characterize deep subsurface microbial communities.   He has extensive field research experience in the mines of South Africa and has been a mentor to undergraduate students during workshops in 2001 and 2002 and during NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) at the University of the Free State in 2003 and 2004.   He has published over 40 papers in environmental microbiology.   He is on the editorial boards of Microbial Ecology and Vadose Zone Journal .

Five Relevant Publications

(40 total peer-reviewed papers, 9 book chapters)

Lehman, R.M., S.P. O'Connell, A. Banta, J.K. Fredrickson, A.-L. Reysenbach, T. L. Kieft, and F. S. Colwell. 2004. Microbiological comparison of core and groundwater samples collected from a fractured basalt aquifer with that of dialysis chambers incubated in situ.   Geomicrobio. J. 21:169-182.

Rutz, B. and T. L. Kieft. 2004. Phylogenetic characterization of dwarf archaea and bacteria from a semiarid soil. Soil Biol. Biochem. 36:825-833.

Oliver, D. S., F. J. Brockman, R. S. Bowman, and T. L. Kieft. 2003. Microbial reduction of hexavalent chromium under vadose zone conditions. J. Environ. Qual. 32:317-324.

Kieft, T.L. 2002. Microbial Starvation Survival in Subsurface Environments.   pp. 2019-2028.   In: Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology, G. Bitton (Ed.) Wiley, NY.

Kieft, T. L. 2000. Size matters: dwarf cells in soil and subsurface terrestrial environments. Ch. 3, pp. 19-46.   In: Non-culturable Microorganisms in the Environment. R. R. Colwell and D. J. Grimes (Eds.), American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.