Dr. Maitreyee Mukherjee

Maitreyee Mukherjee, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: Natural Sciences Building, Room 342
Email: mmukherjee@wtamu.edu
Phone: 806-651-3871
Mukherjee Lab website: https://mukherjee-lab.weebly.com/

Professional Profile

Dr. Mukherjee joined the Department of Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences in January 2022. She earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences at Bowling Green State University. Following completion of her PhD, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago and at Texas A&M University, College Station. 

Teaching and Related Service

Prior to joining WTAMU, Dr, Mukherjee worked as an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been awarded the Butch Outstalet Distinguished Professorship by the University of Southern Mississippi for excellence in teaching in 2021. She is an ACUE-credentialed educator (Association for College and University Educators) and have earned the ACUE certificate in effective instruction, endorsed by the American Council on Education in 2020. She is also a CIRTL Associate Fellow (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning) and has earned the certificate in teaching from the Center for Teaching at Texas A&M University in 2016. 

Research and Creative Activity

Dr. Mukherjee’s overall research interests lie in the areas of environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, molecular microbiology, and microbial processes impacting soil and water quality. She uses a combination of culture- based approaches, molecular methods, and sequencing techniques to examine the role of microorganisms within various natural, artificial and engineered environments – to predict the impact of their interactions in these systems and to translate this gathered knowledge into constructive measures to improve environmental sustainability, management techniques and environmental regulations. She has expertise working with different microbial experimental systems: bacteria, archaea, cyanobacteria, bacteriophages/viruses,  E.coli, and environmental microorganisms. In the recent years, she has specifically worked in the areas of soil and water quality, microbial source tracking, antimicrobial and multidrug resistance prevalent in different environmental sources. She serves as a Topical Advisory Panel member for Water. 

Recent Publications

1. Mukherjee, M.,Laird, E., Gentry, T.J., Brooks, J.P., and Karthikeyan, R.   Increased Antimicrobial and Multidrug Resistance Downstream of Wastewater Treatment Plants in an Urban Watershed.  2021. Frontiers in Microbiology 12:657353. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.657353
2. Mukherjee, M., Marie, L., Liles, C., Mustafa, N., Bullerjahn, G., Gentry, T.J., Brooks, J.P. Elevated Incidences of Antimicrobial Resistance and Multidrug Resistance in the Maumee River (Ohio, USA), a Major Tributary of Lake Erie.  Microorganisms . 2021; 9(5):911. ( https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9050911)
3. Mukherjee, M.; Gentry, T.; Mjelde, H.; Brooks, J.P.; Harmel, D.; Gregory, L.; Wagner, K.  Escherichia coliAntimicrobial resistance variability in water runoff and soil from a remnant native prairie, an improved pasture, and a cultivated agricultural watershed.  Water 2020,  12, 1251. ***EDITOR’S CHOICE ARTICLE ( https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/5/1251)    
4. Iqbal, A.,  Mukherjee, M., Rashid, J., Khan, S.A., Ali, M.A., and Arshad, M. Development of a plant-microbe phytoremediation system for petroleum hydrocarbon degradation: An insight from  alkBgene expression and phytotoxicity analysis. 2019. Science of the Total Environment 671: 696-704. ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719313294?dgcid=author)
5. Gregory, L., Gentry, T.J., Mukherjee, M., Rodriguez, R.,  Casarez, E.A., and Truesdale, J.A. 2018. Texas Bacterial Source Tracking Program Application, Expansion and Marker Evaluation (FY16-17). Texas Water Research Institute TR-508. ( https://twri.tamu.edu/media/1457/tr-508.pdf)
6. Wagner, K., Gentry, T.J., Mukherjee, M., Di Giovanni, G.D., Casarez, E.A., and Truesdale, J.A. 2016. Texas BST Program Refinement, Expansion and Use – FY15. Texas Water Research Institute TR496.
7. Mukherjee, M., Ray, A., Post, A. F., McKay, R.M.  and Bullerjahn, G.S. 2016. Identification, enumeration and diversity of nitrifying planktonic archaea and bacteria in trophic end members of the Laurentian Great Lakes.   Journal of Great Lakes Research  42(1): 39-49. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133015002336?np=y)
8. Small, G.E., Bullerjahn, G.S., Sterner, R.W., Beall, B., Brovold, S., Finlay, J.C., McKay, R.M.L., Mukherjee, M. 2013. Rates and controls of nitrification in a large oligotrophic lake.  Limnology and Oceanography  58 (1): 276-286. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.4319/lo.2013.58.1.0276/abstract)
9. French, E., Kozlowski J.A.,   Mukherjee, M.,  Bullerjahn, G.S., and Bollmann, A. 2012. Ecophysiological characterization of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria from freshwater.   Applied and Environmental Microbiology  78(16):5773-5780. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22685142)