Donald A. Bryant, Ph.D.

Donald A. Bryant, Ph.D.

The Pennsylvania State University

Donald A. Bryant, Ph.D., is the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at The Pennsylvania State University. Bryant’s research interests include ecological, physiological, biochemical, metabolic, genetic and genomic analyses of chlorophototrophic (photosynthetic) bacteria, their light-harvesting systems, and type-1 reaction centers. This includes biotechnological and biofuel applications and the metabolic basis of community structure in phototrophic hot spring microbial mats.

Bryant has served on editorial boards for multiple journals including Journal of Bacteriology, Photosynthesis Research, Archives of Microbiology, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Frontiers of Microbiology, and as associate editor and editor-in-chief of peer-reviewed journals. He has served on numerous advisory committees and review panels for NIH, NSF, USDA, NASA, and DOE. His honors and awards include a NIH-GMS pre-doctoral fellow, NSF-CNRS postdoctoral fellow, and election to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology (1995) and of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (2011). Bryant has been awarded the D. C. White Award (2018) from ASM and the Charles F. Kettering Award (2020) from American Society for Plant Biologists.