Michael Ulyshen, Ph.D., is a research entomologist with the USDA Forest Service in Athens, Georgia. He is known for his research on pollinators in forests, the diversity and ecology of saproxylic insects, and the contributions of insects to wood decomposition and nutrient cycling.
Ulyshen grew up in rural Ohio, where he was encouraged by his parents to pursue an early fascination with the natural world. He spent many days observing and collecting insects in forest patches wedged between fields of corn and soybean. Books like The Malay Archipelago and BBC documentaries were his windows to the larger world. He attended nearby Miami University, where he worked half-time in the natural history museum on campus and earned degrees in zoology and chemistry in 2002. He then went to the University of Georgia, where he earned his M.S. in 2006 and Ph.D. in 2009 in entomology under the guidance of James Hanula, Ph.D. His graduate research focused on the impacts of forest management practices on saproxylic beetle diversity. During that time, he also made independent trips to the tropics (French Guiana, Southeast Asia, and Australia) to learn more about the flora and fauna of those regions.
Ulyshen began his first permanent job in 2010 as an entomologist with the Forest Service in Starkville, Mississippi, where he focused on the contributions of termites and other wood-dwelling insects to wood decomposition. He then became a research entomologist, also with the Forest Service, and moved back to Georgia with his wife, Tianyi, and three children, Lauren, Renee, and Russell, in 2014. His work currently focuses on the value of forests to pollinating insects and how those organisms are affected by prescribed fire and other management practices.