Dr. Dianne Newman

Biography

Dianne K. Newman is the Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology at California Institute of Technology. She is also the Merkin Institute Professor and an HHMI Investigator. She earned her B.A. from Stanford University in 1993 and her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997. Newman has held various faculty roles at Caltech, advancing from Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and then to Professor. Her research interests encompass bioenergetics, cell biology, and the investigation of metabolically diverse, genetically tractable bacteria. She has worked extensively on biofilm biology in the context of human chronic infections and crop rhizospheres. Her studies focus on electron-transfer reactions as they relate to fundamental metabolism in autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms. An important aspect of her work is understanding the complex interactions between microbial metabolism and environmental geochemistry. Furthermore, her laboratory has explored microbe-mineral interactions, particularly how bacteria catalyze mineral formation and dissolve minerals, connecting these processes with cellular energy conservation. Through classical genetic and molecular biological approaches, Newman aims to uncover the genes and mechanisms that govern these vital processes in biological systems.

Research Interests

Experience