Dickson D. Despommier is a microbiologist, ecologist and Professor of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He conducts research on intracellular parasitism

Parasitism

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...

 and teaches courses on Parasitic Diseases, Medical Ecology and Ecology. In recent years, Despommier has received considerable media coverage for his ideas on vertical farming

Vertical farming

Vertical farming is a concept that argues that it is economically and environmentally viable to cultivate plant or animal life within skyscrapers, or on vertically inclined surfaces...

. He developed his concept of vertical farming with graduate students in a medical ecology class in 1999.

Despommier is also co-host of two popular podcasts along with Vincent Racaniello

Vincent Racaniello

Vincent R. Racaniello is a Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons...

, namely TWIV (This Week in Virology) and TWIP (This Week in Parasitism).

Publications

External links

• World Science Festival Bio
• Columbia University Bio
• TWIP
• TWIV