Otto Schwake received his PhD in Microbiology at Arizona State University in 2014, where he studied the occurrence and survival of Legionella in drinking water systems from an environmental engineering perspective. He then took a postdoctoral research associate position at Virginia Tech, performing research to examine the ecology of Legionella. During his postdoc, he was part of the research team responsible for revealing the cause of the Flint, MI water crisis that resulted in mass lead poisoning and a large legionellosis outbreak in the city. After working as an assistant professor at Methodist University in North Carolina, Dr. Schwake accepted a position as an assistant professor at Middle Georgia State University in Macon, GA in 2019. He continues his work with Legionella at MGA, along with performing studies on undergraduate STEM education and research.