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managed for the U.S. Department of Energy
by Brookhaven Science Associates, a company
founded by Stony Brook University and Battelle

 

Meet Daniel (Niels) van der Lelie and Safiyh Taghavi

Niels van der Lelie, a pioneer in the field of microbial ecology, first came to Brookhaven Lab in 2001 at the urging of his partner in research and in life, Safiyh Taghavi. The scientists, who met at the Belgium Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN) as collaborators on a project using microorganisms to detoxify land contaminated by years of zinc smelting, were invited to Brookhaven because of their advances in using microbes to seek out and demobilize chemical pollutants.

“My wife really pushed me,” van der Lelie said. “She saw that the research opportunities in the States were much better than in Belgium.” So the two came to check it out, and decided to stay.

“Over the years we have become a very efficient team, where we both emphasize our strong technical and management skills,” said Taghavi, a native of Iran who went to Belgium in 1971 for her university studies and stayed afterward.

Their research at Brookhaven focuses on the development of new genomic tools to study the functioning of microorganisms, both on the level of the individual organism and on the level of complex microbial communities. This work is of direct importance to several societal issues, such as the cleanup of pollution, the production of bioenergy as an alternative for fossil fuels, and the identification of pathogenic bacteria.

Van der Lelie earned his Ph.D. in mathematics and sciences with a specialization in biology from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in 1989. He conducted postdoctoral research in molecular biology at Transgène in Strasbourg, France, and then joined SCK-CEN and subsequently the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), created out of SCK-CEN for all non-nuclear research activities. There he conducted basic, long-term research on the fundamental genetics of soil bacteria, particularly those resistant to heavy metals and other pollutants, as well as applied research on environmental management and remediation using plants and microbes.

Safiyh Taghavi joined SCK-CEN in 1984 as an industrial engineer, working first as a chemist in the metallurgy department and later in collaboration with microbiologists and geneticists on the development of bacteria-based whole cell biosensors. As part of her ongoing education during her employment, she earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology and biotechnology from the University of Brussels in 1996, for functional and genetic studies of heavy-metal resistance in microbes. She collaborated with van der Lelie on the research mentioned above.

Van der Lelie and Taghavi were married in 1992 and have two daughters, Roxane and Danielle. Both scientists maintain joint appointments at Brookhaven and VITO, and have benefited from a partnership between Brookhaven and Belgian scientists that dates back to World War II. SCK-CEN was the first nuclear research center outside the United States to focus on civil applications for nuclear technology. Belgium got access to this technology as gratitude for supplying the uranium used for the Manhattan project.

“SCK-CEN looks like a mini Brookhaven, so when we came to Brookhaven we immediately felt at home,” Safiyh said.

Though they miss Belgian beer, cheese, and haute cuisine, they are enjoying their time on Long Island and have discovered that certain North Fork wines are, in their best years, as good as those from Europe. In their spare time, they like to cook, entertain their friends and colleagues, and spend quality family time on the beach of Shoreham Village, where they are presently living.

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One of the ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.