Rate My Professor Kelly Wrighton

Kelly Wrighton is the Gordon and Joan Bishop Endowed Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University, where she also serves as Director of the CSU Microbiome Network. She earned her PhD in Microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, MS in Biological Science with a focus on Ecology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2005, and BS in Microbiology from the same institution in 2001. Her postdoctoral training in Computational Biology was completed at UC Berkeley's Department of Earth and Planetary Science from 2010 to 2013. Previously, Wrighton was Assistant Professor of Microbiology at The Ohio State University from 2013 to 2018. Earlier roles include Research Microbiologist at Chevron Corporation and positions at XOMA Pharmaceuticals and Hardy Diagnostics.

Wrighton's research centers on microbiome science and microbial ecology, investigating microbial metabolisms and interactions in diverse ecosystems including soils, subsurface environments, wetlands, shales, and the human gut. Her lab employs metagenomics, metaproteomics, and biogeochemical approaches to study processes like methanogenesis, carbon and sulfur cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions, with applications to soil health, energy recovery, and human health. Key publications include 'Fermentation, hydrogen, and sulfur metabolism in multiple uncultivated bacterial phyla' (Science, 2012), 'Unusual biology across a group comprising more than 15% of domain Bacteria' (Nature, 2015), 'Microbial metabolisms in a 2.5-km-deep ecosystem created by hydraulic fracturing in shales' (Nature Microbiology, 2016), 'A genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes' (Nature Biotechnology, 2021), and 'Genome-Resolved Metaproteomics Decodes the Microbial Composition of an Engineered Subsurface Ecosystem' (mSystems, 2022). Major awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2019), International Society for Microbial Ecology Young Investigator Award (2020), Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellowships (2015, 2016), and the Ohio State University Faculty Mentor Award (2016). She has influenced the field through leadership in microbiome networks and high-impact research with thousands of citations.