Dr. Fan is the principle investigator of the Microbial Informatics Lab (MIL) in the Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology. His research interests include microbial ecology and evolution, microbial symbiosis, microbiome and virus interaction, computational biology, etc. As the first or corresponding author, he published papers in world-class journals including Nature Ecology & Evolution, PNAS, ISME J, and EST. He was awarded the Young Scientist Prize of the European Society of Microbiology (FEMS), and the ‘Year Best Research’ Prize in marine environmental science in New South Wales, Australia.

Educational Qualifications

2008 – 2012, University of New South Wales, Microbiology and Immunology, PhD

2006 – 2008, Zhejiang University, Biophysics, MSci

2002 – 2006, Zhejiang University, Applied Bioscience, BSci

Working experiences

2021 – Present, Assistant Professor, Southern University of Science & Technology

2017 – 2021, Research Assistant Professor, Southern University of Science & Technology

2015 – 2017, Senior Product Manager, iCarbonX Shenzhen

2014 – 2015, Senior Research Fellow, BGI-Research Shenzhen

2012 – 2014, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Queensland

Awards:

1、The Tony Roach Prize in Marine Environmental Science (State Best Research of the Year). Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Sydney, Australia.   Jul 2014

2、FEMS Congress Grants for Young Scientists. The 4th Congress of European Microbiologists, Geneva, Switzerland.   Jun 2011

Grants:

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China, "Deciphering the mechanism of Marine Group II Archaea (Ca. Poseidoniales) in estuarine carbon and nitrogen cycling regulated by magroviruses", 2020-2022

2. Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission, "Application of Shenzhen Bay Indigenous Microorganism in Antipollution", 2019-2021

Publications

24 journal publications (11 as first author and/or corresponding author), citation 1000+, h-index 13.

Featured publications (*Corresponding Author):

1. Fan L*, Wu D, Vadim G, …, Martin WF*, Zhu RX*. (2020). Phylogenetic analyses with systematic taxon sampling show that mitochondria branch within Alphaproteobacteria. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4, 1213-1219.

2. Fan L, Reynolds D, Liu M, Stark M, Webster NS, Kjelleberg S, Thomas T*. (2012). Functional equivalence and evolutionary convergence in complex communities of microbial sponge symbionts. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109:E1878-E1887.

3. Fan L, Liu M, Simister R, Webster NS, Thomas T*. (2013). Marine microbial symbiosis heats up: the phylogenetic and functional response of a sponge holobiont to thermal stress. ISME J 7:991-1002.

4. Gao SH, Fan L*, Peng L, Guo J, …, Bond P*. (2016). Determining multiple responses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 to an antimicrobial agent, free nitrous acid. Environ Sci Technol 50:5305-5312.

5. Liu M, Fan L (joint-1^st author), Zhong L, Kjelleberg S, Thomas T*. (2012). Metaproteogenomic analysis of a community of sponge symbionts. ISME J 6:1515-1525.