PNNL

When the New Year kicked off, one of Hyun-Seob Song’s resolutions was to finalize a special issue of the journal, Processes, which published this month. The topic —Microbial Community Modeling: Prediction of Microbial Interactions and Community Dynamics—was considered challenging to highlight in its entirety because “the scope is so broad that it may not be fully covered in a single volume,” said Song.

His review article written with PNNL colleagues, “Mathematical Modeling of Microbial Community Dynamics: A Methodological Review,” was published in 2014 in the same journal and served as a basis for organizing the special issue. Meanwhile, Song’s 2014 article is currently the second most cited paper in Processes.

“It’s cited frequently because it has been rare to touch upon all of the different aspects of modeling microbial communities in a cohesive way,” said Song. “Covering every facet requires expert knowledge in broad areas of microbial community modeling, so most of the previous articles focused on only a few avenues of modeling.”

Song’s expertise garnered him an invitation from Processes to be editor of the special issue, as well as an editorial board member. With a focus on microbial interactions and community dynamics, he successfully collected 11 articles from lead scientists in the field. Two are review papers; the other nine cover three key areas of microbial modeling.

“The special issue will provide a solid look at cutting-edge science in microbial community modeling,” said Song.

The special issue is now available in print. Click here for a free electronic version.