Mark Schneegurt
Professor, Biological Sciences
Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr. Mark A. Schneegurt is an author, educator, scientist, and entrepreneur. He holds degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Brown University, with professional appointments at Eli Lilly, Purdue University, and University of Notre Dame. In 2000, he joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Wichita State University, rising to the rank of Full Professor. As a founder of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Schneegurt remains an affiliated faculty member. He was previously affiliated faculty in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Currently, he is an affiliated faculty member in the Department of History. For several years, he was Faculty of Excellence as a Coleman Foundation Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Schneegurt teaches General Biology I for 100+ students at a time and teaches a large General Microbiology course. He prefers large classes, especially at lower levels, given their showmanship and the fresh realizations of naïve students. Over the years, he has developed and offered new upper division courses including Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Astrobiology. His pioneering course Interstellar Seminar has been celebrated worldwide. While not an awardee, Dr. Schneegurt was a Finalist for the Academy of Effective Teaching Award on two occasions. He has received the Leadership in the Advancement in Teaching Award, offering the first full online course in LAS. Dr. Schneegurt has been instrumental in developing the Masters of Earth, Environmental, and Physical Sciences, Associate of Science degrees in the sciences, the current Forensic Science degree, the new Forensic Biology MS degree, and the Certificate in Genetic Counseling.
Outreach education has been an important part of Dr. Schneegurt's career. Starting with a small award from KanEd for developing classroom activities using household materials, through an award from Kansas NSF EPSCoR, and ultimately with a $1M NSF GK-12 award, the Pass Me the Salt project maintained programs in all comprehensive high schools in the Wichita Public Schools, sending WSU science students into classrooms, creating in-school research clubs, and publishing papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals with high school students and their teachers as authors. He helped lead the science cafe program of public talks in Wichita using his connection to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, for which he has been President of the WSU Chapter for decades. Dr. Schneegurt was lead writer for OpenStax Microbiology, an OER textbook that is free for students and is currently the most widely used college microbiology textbook, saving students millions of dollars.
Dr. Schneegurt's love of scientific research began as a child, particularly his interest in space sciences. He has held extramural research grants for 30 years, the entire time he has been at WSU. His laboratory has supported 15 or more research students continuously, both graduates and undergraduates, and has hosted pre-college students and teachers. Dr. Schneegurt was a recipient of the WSU Excellence in Research Award, the KINBRE Faculty Scholar Award, and named one of the 150 Greatest Scientists in the History of Kansas by Ad Astra. He arrived at WSU with three active grants in environmental science, one of which resulted in a paper in Science. His most important work at WSU began with projects at the Great Salt Plains of Oklahoma, an extremely salty environment. An early NSF Microbial Observatories award of $1M established Dr. Schneegurt as a leader in the microbiology of extremophiles. Salty environments are found throughout the solar system, so his work attracted the attention of NASA, starting decades-long collaborations with Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a series of astrobiology grants from NASA Planetary Protection. Dr. Schneegurt has wide research interests beyond astrobiology, including publications in environmental metal pollution, agricultural soil nitrogen cycles, avian microbiology, wastewater treatment, medical therapeutics, and algal biodiesel, among others. He obtained funding for the first permanent building at the Biological Field Station. His research has generated millions of dollars in extramural funding. Dr. Schneegurt has delivered more than 250 public presentations and published more than 100 papers in scientific journals and books, nearly all with WSU student authors.
Outside of science, Dr. Schneegurt has pursued a second academic interest in philology and history. This includes popular works, such as a series of travel books on The Beatles. His more scholarly works have been with religious texts. He has published the first translations of the poetry of Ephraim Kuh, a Haskalah epigrammatist in the 18th century. His most well-known work has been exploring the Inquisition trial transcripts of crypto-Jews in colonial Mexico. A published collection of religious poems and prayers from these transcripts is the most comprehensive to date and has led to presentations, grant proposals, invited articles, and even a recital of the songs set to music again after 400 years. Initially a passion project, this work has attracted collaborators worldwide and is contributing to outreach to the descendants of conversos today.
Mark Schneegurt
Professor, Biological Sciences