Pest Control: Jared Leadbetter '91, Ph.D.

Release date: April 23, 2008 |

Jared Leadbetter has a termite problem. The insects aren't ruining his front porch or eating away at his kitchen floor. Instead they're consuming his thoughts: The microbiologist is investigating how termites digest wood. That research, he says, may provide insight into new ways of developing biofuels.

"Termites play important roles in [the lives of plants] in many ecosystems," he says. "As a society, there has been considerable talk lately of developing a new-fangled composting scheme, such that we might turn wood into biofuels."

As a child, Leadbetter, who grew up in Mansfield, CT., was fascinated by bugs. But, unlike many little boys, he has never outgrown that passion. "I had always been interested in insects," he says. "So majoring in the biological sciences was a natural fit."

He particularly remembers his first foray into research: freshman laboratory under the tutelage of Goucher College's biology instructor Nancy Fait. Later, he enhanced his Goucher studies with a summer internship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Instituition in Woods Hole, MA. He also earned his doctorate at Michigan State University.

His pursuit of the sciences kept him busy throughout his college days, but not so busy that he didn't have fun. Once, he recalls, he went ghost hunting at Goucher College's Haebler Chapel. "Several of us sat quietly in the chapel at around 3 a.m., waiting to catch a glimpse of the ghost that everyone always talked about. The chapel most certainly had been locked up at that hour."

Now an associate professor of environmental microbiology at the California Institute of Technology, Leadbetter has conducted research in locations from the deserts of Califronia to the forests of Costa Rica.

"My students and I like to have dirt underneath our fingernails, and we enjoy working on a project that takes us from the field to genome sequencing and back again."

Leadbetter hopes that his research will lead to innovations in biofuel production. In the meantime, he's having a great time. "Biology and insects in particular have always been one of my passions. I also love food," he says. "Perhaps it is of no surprise that one theme of my research on insects and microbes focuses on what they eat and where the nutrients flow."