Deborah Bell-Pedersen, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of biology at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on determining how the microbial circadian clock controls daily rhythms in gene expression, critical to an organism’s fitness and health.

Bell-Pedersen received her M.S. and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the State University of New York at Albany working with Marlene Belfort, where she aided in the discovery of mobile group I introns in bacteriophage T4. Following postdoctoral studies at Dartmouth Medical School working with Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros on the Neurospora crassa circadian clock, she joined the biology faculty at Texas A&M University. Her group’s research is currently focused on determining the mechanisms by which the N. crassa circadian clock regulates mRNA translation and translation fidelity, and the impacts of this regulation on health.

Bell-Pedersen serves as the director for the Center for Biological Clocks Research at Texas A&M University and has served on the boards of the Fungal Genetics Society and the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms as well as several journal editorial boards. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the Jo Ann Treat Award for Excellence in Research, TAMU University Women Former Students’ Network Eminent Scholar Award and the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Research and she was granted the honorary title of University Professor. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.