David Schmale​
Dr. David Schmale is a Professor and the Director of the Translational Plant Sciences Center at Virginia Tech. He received his B.S. from the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Dr. Schmale joined the former department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science as an Assistant Professor in 2006, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011, and to Full Professor in 2016. His research focuses on atmospheric incursions of microorganisms that affect agriculture, ecosystems, and public health. His team uses drone-based technologies to study airborne microbes and improve forecasting systems, and he leads a nationally recognized mycotoxin testing lab that supports small grain producers. Dr. Schmale has a strong commitment to outreach and education, creating engaging science experiences for high school students, including a hands-on slime mold lab and other interdisciplinary lessons that connect science, storytelling, and technology.
He is also a passionate educator, having received Virginia Tech’s prestigious Sporn Award for Teaching Excellence and served three terms as Chair of the Academy of Teaching Excellence. Dr. Schmale has led several interdisciplinary research programs that provide meaningful research opportunities for undergraduate students, including a former NSF HDR DSC grant that integrated data science and biological transport, and a current NSF IRES grant that supports international research experiences in Austria focused on ice nucleation. He was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant Ten in 2013, and his work featured in Scientific American in 2017 was later selected for a collection of the top 21 wild ideas in science that might help save the planet. In 2020, he received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to conduct research in New Zealand. He has secured over 100 research grants totaling more than $24 million from NASA, NSF, USDA, and other sponsors, with about $10 million supporting his own program. Dr. Schmale has published more than 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including an Annual Review, two book chapters, and three papers in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and has delivered invited keynotes and lectures in 12 countries outside the United States.
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