Sarah J. Swerdlow, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg. She primarily teaches microbiology, medical microbiology and senior capstone research projects. Her research involves identification and characterization of the genes responsible for controlling host range in bacteriophages infecting Actinobacter sp. She implemented the Science Education Alliance—Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (SEA-PHAGES) program, which is jointly administered by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and University of Pittsburgh at 2 different institutions. She has been actively involved in her local Allegheny Branch of the American Society of Microbiology (ABASM) for her entire career. She is currently in a second term as president-elect.   

Swerdlow earned her B.S. in molecular biology and biotechnology from Clarion University (now PennWest Clarion) and her Ph.D. in the cancer biology program at Case Western Reserve University (CASE). She then taught for a year at Bowling Green University-Firelands Campus in Sandusky, Ohio and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health—National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, N.C. She taught at Thiel College for 10 years and was a tenured associate professor before moving closer to her family and teaching at her current position.