Mary E. Lidstrom is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington. She also holds the Frank Jungers Chair of Engineering, in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She currently is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Bacteriology and FEMS Microbial Ecology.^[1]

Lidstrom received a B.S. degree in Microbiology from Oregon State University and an M.S. and PhD in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[2]

Lidstrom's work spans microbial physiology and natural complex microbial communities and has applications to biotechnology. Specifically, she has worked extensively on methylotroph bacteria that grow on one-carbon compounds.^[3]

After conducting her doctorate research on C-1 metabolism in Methylobacterium organophilum,^[4] Lidstrom undertook post-doctoral research at University of Sheffield UK with J. Rodney Quayle on species of the methylotrophic yeasts Hansenula and Candida,^[5]: 343 and then returned to the US with faculty posts at the University of Washington, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the California Institute of Technology where she has taught courses on microbiology, oceanography, environmental engineering science, chemical engineering and bioengineering. While at Caltech she served as Vice-Chair of the Faculty.^[6] In 1996 she moved to University of Washington and has remained there.^[7]

Lidstrom is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences from 2013.^[2] Lidstrom was the Vice Provost of Research at the University of Washington from 2005 until 2021.^[8][9] In addition, she served as Associate Dean for New Initiatives in Engineering from 1997 to 2005 and Interim Provost from 2010 to 2011.^[10]

Lidstrom is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific publications. These include:

• Yanning Zheng, Derek F. Harris, Yu Zheng and 9 further authors including Mary E. Lidstrom (2018) A pathway for biological methane production using bacterial iron-only nitrogenase. Nature Microbiology 3 (3) 281-286
• Frances Chu and Mary E. Lidstrom (2016) XoxF acts as the predominant methanol dehydrogenase in the type I methanotroph Methylomicrobium buryatense. American Society for Microbiology 8 (198) 1317-1325
• Mary E. Lidstrom and Michael C. Konopka (2010) The role of physiological heterogeneity in microbial population behavior. Nature Chemical Biology 6 (10) 705-712
• Ludmila Chistoserdova, Marina G. Kalyuzhnaya and Mary E. Lidstrom (2009) The Expanding World of Methylotrophic Metabolism. Annual Review of Microbiology 63 477-499

• American Society for Microbiology Proctor & Gamble Award for Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2013^[11]
• Member of National Academy of Sciences, 2013^[12]
• Howard Hughes Medical Center for Learning at the Life Science/Engineering Boundary Award, 2010^[13]
• ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching and Mentoring Award, 2006^[13]
• American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, 2005^[14]
• American Academy of Microbiology, 1992^[1]
• NSF Faculty Award for Women, 1991^[1]