People

Principal Investigator¶

Siya Shao¶

Assistant Professor | Ecosystem Modeler

Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

301 Ken and Blaire Mossman Building, 1311 Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996

sshao3@utk.edu

Research Interests: Plant–microbe interactions, ecosystem modeling, mycorrhizal fungi, global change biology, biogeochemical cycles, enhanced rock weathering, carbon sequestration

Siya builds process-based ecosystem models in which microbes are active players, working across peatlands, temperate forests, and agricultural systems. Before UTK he was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Arizona, and at Dartmouth College, after a PhD in Geography at McGill University.

CV (PDF) | Google Scholar | ORCID | LinkedIn | UTK Profile | Full biography →

Graduate Students¶

The lab is new and building its group. We are recruiting graduate students for Fall 2027 entry — see Join the Lab.

Postdoctoral Researchers¶

Funded positions are currently open. See Join the Lab for what we look for and how to apply.

Undergraduate Researchers¶

We take undergraduate researchers on a rolling basis, and previous undergraduate projects in the group have led to co-authored publications. See Join the Lab.

Graduate Committees¶

Siya serves on the PhD supervisory committees of Yueyue Xing and Celestine Neba Suh at Memorial University of Newfoundland (PI: Jianghua Wu), advancing the McGill Wetland Model for wetland biogeochemical simulations.

Alumni¶

• Zachary Shortt — undergraduate researcher, Dartmouth College (2022–2024). Now a co-author on Shao et al. 2025, JGR: Biogeosciences.