Tom Smith

Tom Smith

Postdoc at Imperial College London, broadly interested in microbial ecology and evolution

About Me

I am a postdoctoral research associate, broadly interested in microbial ecology and evolution in the context of environmental change. I'm currently working with Prof. Tom Bell at Imperial College London, where we are investigating the evolutionary dynamics of wild bacterial communities.

Latest News

2025-05-02: Our new paper "Phylogenetic clustering of microbial communities as a biomarker for chemical pollution" is out in FEMS Microbiology Ecology!

We found that microbial communities exposed to chemical pollutants which impacted bacterial growth also altered the community structure, making them more phylogenetically clustered. This opens up avenues for using microbial community metrics to diagnose disturbed ecosystems.

2024-10-18: I was invited to be a panellist on BBC Radio 4's "Rare Earth" programme, hosted by Tom Heap and Helen Czerski, for an episode all about the wondererful world of microbes.

You can listen to a recording of the whole show, "The Magic of Microbes" [HERE].