James I. Prosser

Education Prosser studied Microbiology at Queen Elizabeth College in London and was awarded a PhD from the University of Liverpool for research supervised by Tim Gray.

A major focus of his research has been the ecology of soil nitrifying bacteria and archaea, which significantly reduce the efficiency of nitrogen fertilisers and generate greenhouse gases. His research has determined links between the remarkably high diversity of soil ammonia oxidisers and their ecosystem function and he has demonstrated niche specialisation and differentiation in bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidisers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Biology, the American Academy of Microbiology

Prosser has served as director of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) and the Microbiology Society.