The Wabana Lake Family Trust

A full version of John’s CV can be found here.

John Ashley Downing (born April 1951) is an ecologist and limnologist whose career has focused on the science of lakes and inland waters. He is currently Director of the Minnesota Sea Grant Program, a research scientist at the Large Lakes Observatory, and a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He also holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Iowa State University, where he spent two decades leading one of the university’s largest research programs.

Early Life and Education

Downing was born in Iowa City, Iowa, while his father, William L. Downing, was completing a PhD in protozoology. He spent his childhood between Jamestown, North Dakota, in the winters and Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in the summers. In 1962 his family settled in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, where he attended Roseville Public Schools.

Water was always part of his life. His family had owned a summer home in northern Minnesota since 1905, and he grew up fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving in the region’s famously clear lakes. Alongside his love of science, he developed a passion for music. A percussionist, he played in bands and orchestras, worked in recording studios, and even repaired electronics to help pay his way through school.

He earned a biology degree from Hamline University in 1973, after a short period studying marine science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel Institute. He went on to complete a master’s degree in zoology at North Dakota State University in 1975, where he studied the ecology of a popular recreational lake. In 1980, he earned his Ph.D. from McGill University under ecologist Robert H. Peters, with work that appeared in leading scientific journals. He then held a prestigious NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at McGill and the Université de Montréal.

Career

Downing began his academic career at the Université de Montréal as an NSERC University Research Fellow, a program designed to keep promising young researchers in Canadian universities. He became a full professor in 1993 and directed the Laurentian Biological Station from 1990 to 1995.

That same year, he moved to Iowa State University, where he held faculty positions across several departments, including Animal Ecology, Natural Resources Ecology and Management, and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. At Iowa State, he built and ran the state’s leading laboratory for limnology and water quality research.

In 2015, he returned to Minnesota to direct the Minnesota Sea Grant Program, which connects the University of Minnesota’s expertise with communities across the state to make water science accessible and useful. He also joined the Large Lakes Observatory on Lake Superior as a research scientist and became a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Research

Throughout his career, Downing has been a scientist of broad interests, with inland waters at the center of his work. His research has ranged from fisheries biology and aquatic ecology to biodiversity, ecosystem management, resource economics, mammalian ecology, and global carbon cycling.