Chris Greening
He/Him
I am gay and I am a microbiologist and biochemist.//
I’m a professor at Monash University who leads a research group dedicated to using microbiology for climate action. While I’ve always been fascinated by the living world, I only discovered a real love for microbiology during my PhD. That’s when I realised microbes live by rules completely different from our own, and that those differences make them a rich source of potential solutions to global problems.
Growing up in a working-class family in northern England, I trained in biochemistry at the University of Oxford before heading down under to complete a PhD in microbiology at the University of Otago. Over the past decade, our group has grown into a diverse and vibrant team tackling a few too many questions. Most of our work centres on the intersection of climate change and microbiology, including greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem impacts, and infectious disease control.
Along the way, I’ve become someone who tends to advocate for the overlooked, especially queer and neurodivergent scientists, not to mention the microbial world quietly keeping the planet running. Outside the lab, I enjoy playing music, attempting to get fit, and getting taken for long walks by my dogs and my partner. Honestly, it's a good life.