Larry Forney is a University Distinguished Professor and a member of the American Academy of Microbiology with academic appointments in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Idaho. Dr. Forney is an evolutionary ecologist who conducts research on bacterial community ecology of the human vagina across a woman’s lifetime and has expanded his research on the human microbiome to include skin, semen, and the gastrointestinal tract. In these studies he works with clinicians, mathematicians and other scientists to explore the complex array of factors that influence the function, composition, structure and dynamics of the human microbiome. His research extends to understanding the mutation-selection processes that govern the occurrence and persistence of genetic

diversity in spatially structured environments, including soils and microbial biofilms. In addition, Dr. Forney is also the principal investigator of an NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence focused on interdisciplinary research in computational and evolutionary biology to understand how organisms respond

to selective pressure, the factors that influence extant diversity, and to identify factors drive the tempo and trajectory of evolutionary processes.