Curtis Suttle

Heightened awareness of global environmental changes has emphasized the need to understand more fully nutrient and energy cycling in the world’s oceans.

Despite their ubiquity in nature – a teaspoon of seawater contains a billion viruses – little is known about most oceanic viruses. Dr. Curtis Suttle is a biologist and Member of CIFAR’s Integrated Microbial Biodiversity program. Dr. Suttle’s work focuses on discovering new and unusual viruses in the ocean, and investigating both their biology and their role in the global ecosystem.

Dr. Suttle is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Botany and Microbiology and Immunology, as well as an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia, where he also earned his PhD. Previously he was a Coastal Marine Scholar at SUNY Stony Brook and an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Texas in Austin.