Tom Fenchel

Throughout my scientific career I have--in addition to a few digressions--been engaged in the study of the ecology and physiology of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms and their role in aquatic environments including biogeochemical aspects, species interactions and also the diversity of microbial communities. I have especially been interested in the relation of different microorganisms to oxygen and I have studied the physiology of anaerobic protozoa and their bacterial symbionts. The microbial food chains of the marine water column were in a period also central to my scientific activity. My most recent and current interests include chemosensory motile behavior and life cycles of microorganisms in terms of different scales of temporal and spatial heterogeneity in different types of habitats. In this age of genomics I have maintained an emphasis for the study of phenotypes and of functional aspects of organisms and an experimental approach to ecology and ecological physiology.