Rate My Professor David Schulz

David Schulz is Director and Professor of Biological Sciences in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, a position he has held since 2020 after joining the faculty in 2005. He also serves as Director of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program. Schulz earned his bachelor's degree in biology, along with master's and doctoral degrees in entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, completing his PhD in 2001. His research investigates neural network plasticity resulting from injury and disease, focusing on how loss of input from upstream neural components affects downstream uninjured networks. Key interests include changes in neuron properties, ion channel expression, and neuronal excitability in central pattern generator and autonomic nervous system networks. The Schulz Lab employs electrophysiology, molecular profiling, and computational modeling in crustacean models like crabs and lobsters, as well as mouse models of spinal cord injury, to explore implications for locomotion, bladder, bowel function, and recovery potential.

Schulz has received numerous awards, including election as an AAAS Fellow in 2019 for contributions to molecular neuroscience, neural network dynamics, and neuroscience education; the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2018; the Ann K. Covington Award in 2019; the Provost Award for University Citizenship in Faculty Leadership in 2024; and the Richard F. and Sharon A. Keister Faculty Enhancement Award in Biological Sciences in 2017. He co-established one of the first undergraduate minors in computational neuroscience at the university and has developed NSF- and NIH-supported workshops for students and faculty. Notable publications include 'Variable channel expression in identified single and electrically coupled neurons in different animals' (Nature Neuroscience, 2006), 'Invertebrate central pattern generation moves along' (Current Biology, 2005), and 'Quantitative expression profiling of identified neurons reveals cell-specific constraints on highly variable levels of gene expression' (PNAS, 2007). His work elucidates mechanisms balancing plasticity and stability in neural circuits, with applications to spinal cord injury and neurological disorders.