Thomas D. Brock - Career

Career

After completing his Ph.D, Brock took a position in the antibiotics research department at the Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where out of necessity he became self-taught in microbiology and molecular biology. By the time he left Upjohn, he had published six papers in respectable journals and become a member of the Society of American Bacteriologists. In 1957, Brock joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Western Reserve University. In 1960, he accepted the position of assistant professor of bacteriology at Indiana University, where he was promoted to full professorship in 1964. He moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1971 and became chairman of the Department of Bacteriology in 1979.

Bacteria are able to grow ... at any temperature at which there is liquid water, even in pools which are above the boiling point.

From 1965 through 1975, Brock conducted field and laboratory research on thermophilic microorganisms in Yellowstone National Park, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. From a sample of pink bacteria collected from Mushroom Spring, Brock and undergraduate student Hudson Freeze isolated an organism thriving at 70°C (160°F) which they named Thermus aquaticus. The ability of T. aquaticus to tolerate high heat would, 20 years later, make possible the invention of a procedure called polymerase chain reaction. PCR utilizes an enzyme in T. aquaticus, now known as Taq polymerase, to speed up DNA replication. The process, invented by Kary Mullis, won a Nobel Prize.

In 1998, Brock helped update and contribute to a new version of René Dubos' 1960 book, Pasteur and Modern Science. In 1999, he translated and edited Milestones in Microbiology 1546 to 1940, a collection of the most important papers in early microbiology, including work by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Joseph Lister. Also released in the same year was Brock's Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology, a biography of German physician Robert Koch.

Brock is retired and holds the E.B. Fred Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During his career, Brock published more than 250 papers and 20 books, and received numerous science and education awards.

Brock and his wife, Kathie, operate Pleasant Valley Conservancy, a Wisconsin State Natural Area, a 140-acre Preserve in western Dane County, Wisconsin. It consists of extensive restored oak savannas, dry, mesic, and wet prairies, wetlands, and oak woods. Scenic views and wildlife viewing are excellent, and several trails provide ready access to the Preserve. Especially noteworthy at Pleasant Valley are the fine oak savannas, once common in the Midwest but now very rare. The Preserve has many large open-grown white and bur oaks, which can be viewed from Pleasant Valley Road, and seen close up from the trails. The herbaceous layer in the savanna is highly diverse.

The thermophilic bacterial species, Thermoanaerobacter brockii, is named after Brock.