Corina Brussaard

Corina P. D. Brussaard is a leading scientist for Antarctic viral ecology working for the Royal Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) and is a Special Professor of Viral Ecology at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

Early life and education Brussaard was educated at University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands, studying marine biology, and microbial ecology. She defended her PhD thesis on 'Phytoplankton cell lysis and ecological implications' in 1997. She was awarded a Marie Curie TMR-grant supplied by the EC for 2 year Post Doctoral research at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Brussaard studies the ecological role viruses play in the sea, combining field work and detailed laboratory studies. and its consequences for the pelagic biogeochemical cycling (carbon, nutrients including iron), as well as isolation of novel algae-infecting viruses (e.g. viruses infecting Phaeocystis belonging to the recently named large-genome Mimiviridae family). She also discovered the first dsRNA virus that infects protists and lipid membrane-containing Micromonas viruses. Additionally she has developed methods for the rapid detection and enumeration of viruses, and for measuring cell lysis rates as a consequence of viral infections.

Brussaard is the President of the International Society of Microbes (ISVM) and is also the Chair of the Netherlands Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Committee from 2006 until 2016 and its secretary from 2014–2018. She was also a member of the Netherlands Polar Committee from 2010–2014 and is a Fellow of the American Academy Microbiology and of the Council for Earth and Life Sciences of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brussaard's research has received interest from radio, newspapers and magazines. Moreover, Brussaard was a guest on the Dutch television show Pauw & Witteman on 23 January 2013 to discuss the then new Dutch Dirck Gerritsz Laboratory.

In March 2016, Brussaard was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.