Christopher W. Schadt is a Staff Scientist in the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  Dr. Schadt is an environmental microbiologist with expertise in the influence of microorganisms (primarily bacteria, fungi and archaea) on biogeochemical cycles in soils and sediments, as well as their interactions with plant community members.  Additional he has interest and expertise in development of molecular methodologies to track the distribution of activities of microorganisms in these environments.

He received his BS in Botany in 1996 at the University of Washington, and a Ph.D in 2002 under the direction of Prof. Steven Schmidt at the University of Colorado, Boulder; proceeding from there to a postdoctoral appointment with Dr. Jizhong Zhou and later staff appointments at ORNL. Dr. Schadt has also been recently appointed Joint Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee in the Department of Microbiology.  He is an author on more than 65 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including high ranking journals such as Science and PNAS.