Ashley L. Shade is a Director of Research with the Institute of Ecology and the Environment of Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Shade is an adjunct associate professor at Michigan State University in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. She is best known for her work in microbial ecology and plant-microbe interactions.

Education

Shade received her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in biology from

Susquehanna University Susquehanna University is a private liberal arts college in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, United States. Its name is derived from the original Susquehannock settlers of the region. Founded in 1858 as a missionary institute, it became a four-year li ...

. She received her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

under the supervision of Katherine D. McMahon. Her dissertation was on the disturbance ecology of freshwater microbial communities in vertically stratified lakes that experience

lake turnover A lake ecosystem or lacustrine ecosystem includes biotic (living) plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (non-living) physical and chemical interactions. Lake ecosystems are a prime example of lentic ecosystems (''lentic'' ref ...

. Shade did her post-doctoral work at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

under

Jo Handelsman Jo Emily Handelsman (born March 19, 1959) is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is also a Vilas Research Professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Handelsman was appoint ...

as a

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is an American foundation established by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore and his wife Betty I. Moore in September 2000 to support scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements ...

Scholar in the Life Sciences Research Foundation.

Career and research

After completing her post-doctoral research at Yale, Shade moved to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

in 2014. Shade began her research group at Michigan State University as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (now th
Department of Microbiology, Genetics and Immunology
and th
Department of Plant Soil and Microbial Sciences
In 2021, Shade was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

. The lab was a founding member of th
Michigan State Plant Resilience Institute
and a part of th
BioMolecular Sciences Graduate Training Program
th
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
and th
Ecology, Evolutionary, and Behavior program
at Michigan State University. In her career, Shade has promoted the importance of data accessibility, reproducibility, and diversity, equity, and inclusion and has spoken abou
work-life balance
Shade has contributed to the fields of microbial ecology and plant-microbe interactions. For example, The Earth Microbiome Project works to collect and analyze microbial samples across the globe. These contributions have contributed to the general understanding of resilience in freshwater, soil and plant-associated microbiomes. Shade's Lab focuses on microbial ecology and plant-microbe interactions by using

Omics Omics is the collective characterization and quantification of entire sets of biological molecules and the investigation of how they translate into the structure, function, and dynamics of an organism or group of organisms. The branches of scien ...

approaches to evaluate microbiomes. The lab has three main areas of research including ecological microbiome resilience, interactions in synthetic microbial communities, and plant-microbe-soil interactions to promote resilience to climate change. In 2022, Shade moved to France to join the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

as a director of research. She is part of th
Laboratoire Ecologie Microbienne
There, she is working on how to increase the resilience of natural and agricultural systems, including crops and soils, by maintaining microbial functions despite changing environmental conditions due to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. Shade is a senior editor for the

American Society for Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

's journal ''mSystems'' and has previously been a guest editor for '' Phytobiomes Journal''.

Selected awards and recognition

*2025

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

*2022

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Consolidator Award *2021 Michigan State University Graduate School Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award to junior faculty *2019:

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

Early Career Fellow *2018: United States National Science Foundation CAREER award * 2010–2013: Life Sciences Research Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation * 2009: University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Bacteriology: Ira L. Baldwin Distinguished Predoctoral Fellowship for Excellence in Research * 2008: University of Wisconsin-Madison Anna Grant Birge Award for Limnology Field Work

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shade, Ashley Living people Wikipedia Student Program University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women microbiologists French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists American microbiologists Year of birth missing (living people)