Dr. Patrick Schloss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan. As a microbial ecologist, Pat is fascinated by bacterial communities. He believes that bacterial communities in and on us are interacting with each other and with us, to keep us healthy. If something goes wrong with these communities, then we need to figure out how to get them back on track so they can help us stay healthy. Pat also has a knack for bioinformatics and enjoys building tools for computational analysis. Pat spends most of his free time with his 8 kids. They live just outside of Ann Arbor on a farm with sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens. Working on the farm is a good way to escape the stress of science, and it's also nice for Pat to sit down to dinner at the end of the day and think about how everything on their plates came from within a mile of their own farm. After completing his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, Pat stayed on to receive his PhD. Both degrees were in Biological & Environmental Engineering. He went on to do his postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin and served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan where he is today. In this interview, Pat shares stories from his life and science.