Rate My Professor Oswald Schmitz

Oswald Schmitz is the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology in the Yale University School of the Environment and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He earned a B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Guelph in 1982, an M.Sc. in Zoology from the same institution in 1984, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources in 1989. After completing an N.S.E.R.C. Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia from 1990 to 1992, he joined Yale University in 1992 as Assistant Professor in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the School of the Environment). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996 and Professor in 2000. Schmitz has held significant administrative positions, including Senior Associate Dean for Research and Director of Doctoral Studies since 2019, Director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies from 2011 to 2018, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2004 to 2009. Named the Oastler Professor in 2006, he was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006 and Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2015. He received Yale School of the Environment teaching awards in 1999 and 2014.

Schmitz's research investigates the dynamics and structure of terrestrial food webs, with a focus on plant-herbivore interactions shaped by carnivores and soil-nutrient levels, biodiversity-ecosystem function linkages, and impacts of disturbances like climate change on species interactions and services. He develops mathematical theories tested via field experiments in ecosystems from Canadian boreal forests to New England old fields. His authored books include The New Ecology: Rethinking a Science for the Anthropocene (Princeton University Press, 2016), Resolving Ecosystem Complexity (Princeton University Press, 2010), and Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation (Island Press, 2007). As editor, he produced Trait-Mediated Indirect Interactions: Ecological and Evolutionary Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Influential publications feature Animals and the zoogeochemistry of the carbon cycle (Science, 2018), Trophic cascade alters ecosystem carbon exchange (PNAS, 2013), and Fearful effects on ecological competitors (Nature, 2019). Schmitz has served as Editor of Ecology Letters (2004-2008), Associate Editor for journals including The American Naturalist (2009-2013) and Ecology and Evolution (2014-present), and on committees such as the Board of Directors of Ocean Conservancy (2017-present).