The home page of:  John Merrill

Hello, I am an associate professor at Michigan State University, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. I'm interested in all manner of things relating to algae, especially those relating to the economic utilization of macroalgae (seaweeds).

You can obtain additional information about the courses I teach at the following links:

BioSci 111 Cells and Molecules (Intro Biology), Spring Semester
MMG 301: Intro to Microbiology, Fall Semester

Here are some web resources, sure to expand over time...:

• Gracilaria - a red alga from which agar can be extracted. This page has photos from a project I worked on in Taranto, Italy.
• Symploca - a cyanobacterium (blue green alga) that infests golf greens, and so, probably has more economic impact than all the cultivated edible seaweeds combined! (Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating.)

My current research projects include:

• Cultivation of Porphyra in semi-closed bioreactors (collaboration with Dr's. Michael Friedlander and Alvaro Israel, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, Haifa, Israel).
• Thermal stability studies on the algal photosynthetic pigments phycoerythrin and phycocyanin (funding from USDA).
• Development of new online resources for the teaching of introductory biology (funding from Howard Hughes Medical Institute)

Office: 6171 Biomedical Physical Sciences Bldg.

Tel: 517-355-6463 x1597; Fax: 517-353-8957

merrill3 at msu dot edu