Frank Löffler

Professor
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Frank Loeffler received a B.S. degree in Biology and an M.S. degree in microbiology from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. He performed his doctoral studies in biotechnology at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg and received a Ph.D. degree (summa cum laude) in 1994. As an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, he conducted research in the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, before joining the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. From 2010 to 2023, Dr. Loeffler served as Governor’s Chair Professor at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and he directed the university’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology. He currently holds the Goodrich Chair of Excellence in Civil Engineering and is a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

The Loeffler laboratory explores the physiology, diversity, distribution, and ecology of microorganisms that control nitrogen turnover, carbon cycling, and contaminant detoxification, with the goal to harness, manipulate, and predict microbiome functions in both natural and managed habitats.