Jonathan Schilling

Background & Expertise

Jonathan Schilling has been at the University of Minnesota since 2006. He is a professor in plant and microbial biology and has been director of the Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories since 2018. For several decades, Schilling has studied microbial decomposers, most often the fungi. He is broadly interested in how fungal biology relates both to biotechnological potential (applications) and to ecological dynamics (implications), including the role of fungi in carbon cycling and their potential inclusion in earth systems models. Fungi are also increasingly popular with students, and Schilling teaches two core fungal courses, annually. As director at Itasca, Schilling has reinvigorated station-based field courses which have been the essence of Itasca since 1908. He has also curated the regrowth of a research community at Itasca, and has been pushing the Station as an 'inroads' rather than an 'outpost' model for public engagement in the rural. He has been a resident fellow at IonE since 2010, and he continues to seek ways to use his platform and the physical space at Itasca to find common ground to address shared goals for nature.