User:RBK613/Robert Starkey

Robert Starkey

Starkey completed his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1924 under later Nobel Prize winner Selman Waksman, and was appointed to the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology of Rutgers University in 1926. Highlights of this era include the publication (with Waksman) of the seminal paper "The Soil and the Microbe" in 1931 and advancements in microbial sulfur and nitrogen transformations (Starkey sulfate reducing bacteria and anaerobic corrosion of iron pipes, bioleaching, lipid production via Lipomyces starkeyi, an oleaginous yeast that is still being investigated for potential uses such as the production of oil ). Both Waksman and Starkey won national acclaim for their studies in soil microbiology. Starkey, like his mentor Waksman, was eventually named President of the Society of American Bacteriology.