Everyone knows that clean water is important. But for the state of Michigan, surrounded on three sides by the Great Lakes, it is absolutely essential—to the economy and the environment. That’s why the research being done by U-M professor Vincent Denef is so critical.
Denef, an LSA assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has been studying microbes and their relation to the aquatic systems of the Great Lakes region since 2000, when he first came to Michigan to work on his doctorate at Michigan State University.
Denef’s research focuses on invasive species such as zebra and quagga mussels, and attempts to answer questions about how mussel invasion affects different bacteria and how the mussels themselves are actually changing what is happening in the lakes.
