Eric W. Triplett

Eric W. Triplett is an American microbiologist. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), a position he has held since 2003.^[1][2] His research addresses microbial diversity across environments, including nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the human gut microbiome's role in autoimmune disease, and the biology of citrus greening disease.^[1][3]

Triplett was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.^[2][4] According to Google Scholar, his publications have been cited more than 30,000 times, with an h-index of 85.^[5]

Triplett received a Bachelor of Science in biology from Cook College, Rutgers University, in 1976. He earned a Master of Science in Botany and Plant Physiology from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1978, and a PhD in Agronomy and Plant Physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 1981, studying nitrogen metabolism in soybeans under Dale G. Blevins.^[6] He completed postdoctoral research on nitrogenase regulation in Rhodospirillum rubrum at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under Paul W. Ludden.^[6]

Triplett was an assistant professor in the Plant Pathology Department at the University of California, Riverside, from 1982 to 1987, researching nitrogen fixation.^[6] He then moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was an assistant professor (1987–1990), associate professor (1990–1995), and professor (1995–2003) in the Agronomy Department, and served as a faculty senate member and associate chair of the department.^[6]

In 2003, Triplett joined the University of Florida as Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science within UF/IFAS, a role he continues to hold.^[1][6] He also served as Interim Chair of the Plant Pathology Department from 2010 to 2011, and has been an adjunct professor in that department since 2014.^[6] From 2024 to 2025, he additionally served as executive director of Special Projects for Data Analytics at UF/IFAS.^[6]

Early in his career, Triplett's research focused on the genetics of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, including competition for nodulation in Rhizobium–legume symbioses. This work resulted in several United States patents on nitrogen-fixing bacterial inoculants and related biological control methods.^[6]

Since the 2010s, Triplett's research has examined associations between the gut microbiome and autoimmune conditions, particularly type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. He has served as co-chair of the Infectious Disease Committee for the NIH-funded TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young) study, a multinational cohort study of islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes.^[6][7] He is a co-author on large-scale TEDDY consortium studies characterizing the developing infant gut microbiome in relation to islet autoimmunity.^[8]

Triplett's laboratory has developed model systems to study Liberibacter, the bacterium associated with citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing), which has caused major losses to Florida's citrus industry.^[3] Working with colleague Zhonglin Mou, he has been involved in the development and regulatory evaluation of transgenic citrus lines engineered for tolerance to the disease.^[9] This research has been covered by agricultural trade press.^[10][11]

As chair of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science since 2003, Triplett has overseen substantial growth in the department, including an increase from 13 to 27 tenured and tenure-track faculty, and the development of distance-education degree programs at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.^[6] He led a successful legislative budget request that provided $55 million to help establish UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute.^[6]

He has served on the editorial board of the ISME Journal since 2010 and of Microbiome since 2014.^[6]

• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020)^[2][4]
• William A. Hinton Award for Advancement of a Diverse Community of Microbiologists, American Society for Microbiology (2021)^[1][6]
• Innovative Teaching Award, Academic Programs Section of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (2019)^[6]
• CAFNR Alumni Columns Award, University of Missouri (2019)^[6]
• International Professorship for Latin America and the Caribbean, American Society for Microbiology (2011)^[6]
• Fulbright Award, visiting scholar at the Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University (2003)^[6]

• "Recombinant Rhizobium bacteria inoculants," U.S. Patent No. 5,183,759 (1993)
• "Plasmid for transformation of root nodule bacteria," U.S. Patent No. 5,858,762 (1999)
• "Lactobacillus supplement for alleviating type 1 diabetes," U.S. Patent No. 9,474,773 (2016)

• Triplett, E. W. (ed.). Prokaryotic Nitrogen Fixation: A Model System for the Analysis of a Biological Process. Horizon Scientific Press, 2000.
• Leong, S. A., C. Allen, & Triplett, E. W. (eds.). Biology of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Vol. 3. International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 2002.

• Triplett, E. W., & Sadowsky, M. J. (1992). "Genetics of competition for nodulation of legumes." Annual Review of Microbiology, 46, 399–428.
• Davis-Richardson, A. G., & Triplett, E. W. (2015). "A model for the role of gut bacteria in the development of autoimmunity for type 1 diabetes." Diabetologia, 58, 1386–1393. doi:10.1007/s00125-015-3614-8
• Vatanen, T., et al. (2018). "The human gut microbiome in early-onset type 1 diabetes from the TEDDY study." Nature, 562, 589–594. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0620-2
• Lernmark, Å., et al. (2025). "Looking back at the TEDDY study: lessons and future directions." Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 21, 154–165. doi:10.1038/s41574-024-01045-0
• Glusberger, P. R., et al. (2026). "Risk evaluation and molecular characterization of AtNPR1 transgenic citrus lines tolerant to citrus greening disease." Plant Biotechnology Journal, 24, 1223–1233. doi:10.1111/pbi.70394