Distinguished Lecture Series

Small is beautiful – the uncharted microbial diversity and its implications
As Guest: Prof. Dr. Jörg Overmann

Microbial diversity has emerged as a major driver of ecosystem functionality but so far is understood the least. Bacterial diversity alone is estimated at 10 million to 1 billion species.
This sheer extent calls for innovative approaches to elucidate the role of microbial speciation, community assembly, redundancy, and interactions in ecosystems. Recent methodological advances have indeed enabled novel insights into the functional implications of previously unknown bacteria. Beyond basic research and biotechnological applications, these results have even impacted international science policy in the past years.
For the future, elucidating particularly the plant and invertebrate microbiomes holds promise for improving ecosystem functions and the mitigation of the effects of climate change.

Short biography:
Ph.D. at the University of Konstanz, postdoc at the University of British Columbia, and habilitation at the University of Oldenburg. Jörg Overmann was Professor of Microbiology at the LMU München, then served as the Director of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ.
Since August 2025 he is Director General, Bavarian State Collections of Natural History and Chair for Molecular Biodiversity Research at the LMU.