Revealing a world of biofilms — the pioneering research of Bill Costerton

In this Essay in our Microbiology Pioneers series, Hilary Lappin-Scott, Sara Burton and Paul Stoodley pay tribute to Bill Costerton, who was the founding father of biofilm research, and trace his development of the biofilm concept. Bill Costerton is recognized as the founding father of the field of biofilms, which is the study of microorganisms attached to surfaces. He was a true pioneer and was passionate about directly observing living complex microbial communities to learn how they function in different ecosystems. His multidisciplinary approach to the study of biofilms forged a common way of thinking about the ways in which microorganisms survive and function in the environment as well as in medical, dental, industrial, agricultural, engineering and other contexts. In this Essay, we outline some of the achievements that Bill made during his scientific journey.