Joan Bray Rose

Endowed Chairs College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

• Homer E. Nowlin Chair in Water Research
• Established by the Board of Trustees through an estate gift by Homer E. Nowlin

• Fisheries and Wildlife

Bio

Joan Rose is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Homer E. Nowlin Chair in Water Research. Rose is an international authority on water microbiology, water quality, and public health safety.

She has three degrees in microbiology: a BS and PhD from the University of Arizona, and an MS from the University of Wyoming. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan State University in 2003, she held various faculty appointments at the University of South Florida. 

Rose is co-director of the Center for Water Sciences and co-director of the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment. In addition, she supervises the Water Quality, Environmental and Molecular Microbiology Laboratory at Michigan State University. There, Rose and her team focus on the study of water quality and health and are developing new genetic analytics to study waterborne heath threats. There are four areas of interest: new methods for the study of the water microbiome; survey of microbial source tracking and pathogens in watersheds, beaches, drinking water; removal of pathogens by treatment systems; and quantitative microbial risk assessment.