Steven Wilhelm is the Kenneth & Blaire Mossman Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee. He completed both his BSc (honours, Genetics) and PhD (Plant Sciences) at the University of Western Ontario (Canada).

After postdoctoral stints at the University of Texas and University of British Columbia, he joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee in 1998.

Research in the Wilhelm group focuses on the interplay between biogeochemistry and microbial communities in both marine and fresh waters. As early adopters of the tools of molecular biology, his group uses a gene-to-ecosystem approach to understand how aquatic systems function and are shaped by their microbial communities.

Specific areas of interest include developing an understanding of virus ecology, trace element biogeochemistry and harmful algal blooms.

Professor Wilhelm is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology as well as a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).

In June of 2021, he was named the winner (along with Curtis Suttle) of the John H Martin Award from ASLO for their initial description of the “viral shunt”. In 2022 he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in 2024 elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.