ISSE Staff
John Sanseverino
ISSE Program Leader, Environmental Security;
Assistant Professor and Assistant Director, UT's Center for Environmental Biotechnology
Office Phone: (865) 974-4251
Email: jsansev@utk.edu
Ph.D., Biology, Lehigh University
M.S., Microbiology, University of New Hampshire
B.S., Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Dr. Sanseverino started his career at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1989 as a Graduate Research Assistant. During this time, his research focus was on biodegradation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in manufactured gas plant soils. One product of his work generated evidence determining that the mechanism for naphthalene degradation also acted upon phenanthrene and anthracene. In 1995, Dr. Sanseverino worked as Senior Research Assistant for the Center of Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 1999, he became Research Assistant Professor for the Center of Environmental Biotechnology. His major duties as research assistant professor are research and development, laboratory administration, and supervision and training of graduate students and technicians. Since then, Dr. Sanseverino obtained the position of Assistant Director of the Center of Environmental Biotechnology in 2001. Prior to this, he co-founded a start-up company that is developing instrumentation to monitor drinking water for microbial pathogens called Critical Point Technologies, Inc.
Dr. Sanseverino’s teaching interests are general microbiology, microbial physiology, laboratory instruction, molecular biology, and environmental microbiology. Along with his teaching interests, his research focuses are microbial physiology, microbial ecology, conversion of waste biomass to value-added products, biodegradation and biotransformation of pollutants, detection of microorganisms, and bioreporter development and application. Some of Dr. Sanseverino’s professional affiliations include the American Society for Microbiology and the Environmental Chemistry which is a Division of the American Chemical Society. Between 2002 and 2005, he served on the Biological Safety Committee at the University of Tennessee and since the spring of 2005 has served on the Radiation Safety Officer Search Committee.
View Dr. Sanseverino’s resume here.
Selected Publications
- Rice, J.F., A.G. May, F-M. Menn, J. Sansevervino, G.S. Sayler. Natural Selection for 2,4,5-trechlorophenoxyacetic acid Mineralizing Bacteria in Agent Orange Contaminated Soil. Accepted to Biodegradation.
- Michael L. Simpson, Timothy E. McKnight, Michael A. Guillorn, and Vladimir I. Merkulov, Gary S. Sayler, James T. Fleming, John Sanseverino, and Anatoli Melechko. 2002. The Device Science of Whole Cells as Components in Micro scale and Nanoscale Systems. In: Cellular Computing.
- Sanseverino J., A.C. Layton, and G.S. Sayler. 2002. Detection of Polychorinated Biphenyl-degrading Organisms in Soil. In: Gene Probes: Principles and Protocols. M. Aquino de Muro and R. Rapley, eds. Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey.