Rate My Professor Mike Ross

Mike Ross is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, serving as concentration chair for the Sustainable Landscape Design program within the Herbert College of Agriculture. He also holds an appointment as Associate Professor in the School of Landscape Architecture in the College of Architecture and Design. Ross earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from Texas Tech University in 2017 and was originally trained as an organismal biologist and evolutionary ecologist. Bringing over 20 years of professional experience in design, restoration ecology, consultancy, and landscape management, he specializes in translating ecological systems and relationships into design and management strategies, with a particular emphasis on management applications of time and systems interaction as design.

Ross's research centers on the intersection of ecology and urbanism, focusing on re-wilding, ecosystem services, urban ecology, green infrastructure, and biodiversity in design at various scales. Key research questions include the role of floating treatment wetlands in enhancing biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecological function in urban and post-industrial waterways; designed landscapes as wildlife corridors and the built environment's role in re-wilding; biodiversity and spontaneous vegetation in novel ecosystems such as green roofs, brownfields, urban dross, and post-industrial sites; rewilding as a mechanism for ecosystem design; and strategic, adaptive management of landscapes as design. He leads the SLD Living Systems Lab, which advances biodiverse, ecosystems-driven design through site work, garden design, outdoor education spaces, green roof research, and experiential learning projects like floating wetlands along Third Creek. Ross engages students through hands-on, service-learning approaches in courses including PLSC 280 Fundamentals of Sustainable Landscape Design, PLSC 480 Sustainable Landscape Design Synthesis and Application, LAR 435 Ecological Design: Theories and Methods II, and EEPS 443 Urban Ecology. His contributions include serving as Herbert College of Agriculture Marshal and receiving the 2023 Environmental Leadership Award.