Cutting-edge research rewarded
August 15, 2014
Share
By Anne Craig, Communications Officer
Queen’s University researcher Keith Poole was recently honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM) after a 26-year career of peering into petri dishes and analyzing microscopic bacteria. The CSM Murray Award recognizes leading Canadian microbiology researchers for their career contributions and cutting-edge research.
Dr. Poole studies the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a problem organism that is notoriously antibiotic-resistant. He examines how and why it can make people living with debilitating illnesses such as cystic fibrosis sick. He is also studying how this bacterium becomes antibiotic resistant.
![](/gazette/sites/gazettewww/files/assets/stories/2014/8/keithpooleinside.jpg)
“It was definitely an interesting process putting together my resume for submission for the Murray Award,” Dr. Poole says. ”"It gave me a chance to look back on my career. It was definitely an exciting moment when I got the phone call saying I was this year’s awardee.”
It was as a third-year undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the 1970s that Dr. Poole discovered his academic calling after taking a microbiology course. After completing his BSc and after working as a technician for a year in a microbiology lab, he undertook a PhD at UBC before heading to Germany as a postdoctoral fellow from 1986 to 1988.
While scouting for a second postdoctoral fellowship back in North America, a faculty position opened up at Queen’s in the then Department of Microbiology and Immunology. After a hastily arranged one-day interview complete with a pizza lunch/dinner – “no time for wining and dining,” he laughs – he returned to Germany to complete his postdoctoral work. Within a day of his return, he was contacted by Queen’s and offered a tenure-track position.
“Working at Queen’s has afforded me the opportunity to indulge my passion for microbiology research and to mentor a host of incredible undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral research trainees,” says Dr. Poole. “It’s been a great ride.”
Dr. Poole is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a past recipient of the Queen’s University Prize for Excellence in Research. His research is funded by Cystic Fibrosis Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.