Jo Handelsman

Jo Emily Handelsman (born 1959 in New York, NY) is the Director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at UW-Madison. Dr. Handelsman was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she served for three years until January 2017. She has been editor-in-chief of the academic journal DNA and Cell Biology and author of books on scientific education, most notably Scientific Teaching.

Handelsman earned her Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from Cornell University in 1979 and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1984.

Handelsman secured a faculty position in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985. She remained at Wisconsin until 2009, and then took a position at the Yale University Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in 2010. Her research involves the study of microorganisms present in soil and insect gut. She is responsible for coining the term metagenomics and is particularly known for her work in pioneering the use of functional metagenomics to study antibiotic resistance. She has published books and held workshops on scientific teaching, for which she is recognized nationally.

She is an active researcher and advocate of women in science issues. She was co-director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute and was the first president of the Rosalind Franklin Society. In 2011 she was awarded the Presidential Award for Science Mentoring, which recognizes mentors in science or engineering.