About Our Fellowship


The Medical Microbiology Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was accredited by the ACGME in 2008. The program is one year in length and qualifies fellows to sit for the Medical Microbiology Board Examination, a subspecialty board of the American Board of Pathology. A prerequisite for fellowship training is successful completion of either a pathology residency training program (in AP and/or CP) or an infectious disease fellowship.

The goal of the program is to train fellows to assume leadership roles in academic, tertiary care, and public health microbiology laboratories. Philosophically we believe that this education is best accomplished through hands-on instruction in microbiological methods, direct participation in the consultative and administrative activities of the microbiology laboratory, and participation in activities of the infectious disease, pharmacy, and infection control/hospital epidemiology departments. The organization of the program reflects these goals. We also emphasize scholarly contributions in the forms of translational clinical microbiology studies and/or authorship of chapters and reviews during fellowship training. Fellows have rotations at Children's Hospital Boston and the Massachusetts State Laboratory to ensure sufficient exposure to pediatric and public health microbiology, respectively.

Applications may be obtained from our fellowship coordinator: bidmc-pathologyfellowships@bidmc.harvard.edu. Completed applications should be received by August 31 of the year prior to fellowship training.

More information about our fellowships, including current and former fellows and their publications, may be found at the Clinmicrolab website.

We also offer the only American Academy of Microbiology-accredited Medical and Public Health Microbiology Fellowship Program in New England. The goals and organization are similar to our ACGME-accredited program. At the end of their training, fellows will qualify to sit for the CPEP-Board Examination in Medical and Public Health Microbiology.

Program Director

James E. Kirby, MD
Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Learn about the Kirby Lab.

Associate Program Directors & Faculty

Stefan Riedel, MD, PhD
Associate Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Alex McAdam, MD, PhD
Chief and Medical Director, Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, Boston Children's Hospital; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Nicolas Epie, PhD, HCLD, TS(ABB), MLS(ASCP)
Director, Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory

Nira Pollock, MD, PhD
Associate Director, Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, Boston Children's Hospital

Ramy Arnaout, MD, DPhil
Associate Director, Clinical Microbiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Learn about the Arnaout Lab.

Thea Brennan-Krohn, MD
Faculty, Clinical Microbiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Attending Physician, Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Harvard Medical School
Learn about the Brennan-Krohn Laboratory.