USU Mourns the Passing of Ecologist Eugene 'Geno' Schupp

Utah State University professor Eugene “Geno” Schupp, a distinguished plant ecologist, died June 1 in Logan following a battle with esophageal cancer. He was 74.

Schupp was an internationally recognized scientist whose work helped shape modern understanding of seed dispersal, plant recruitment and vegetation dynamics. He served for more than three decades on the faculty of USU, where he was professor of plant population ecology and restoration ecology.

“Geno’s impact was huge as an influential plant ecology scholar and a USU professor for 33 years,” said Chris Keyes, head of the Department of Wildland Resources. “Among his lasting legacies is the Conservation & Restoration Ecology degree program that he designed and managed right up to his retirement last year. The program has become one of the Wildland Resources Department’s most popular majors among students, and its enrollment continues to grow.

As a researcher, Schupp inspired and collaborated with colleagues from around the world. A major theme of his research on seed dispersal in tropical and temperate plants was that healthy ecosystems depend on the complex web of mutually beneficial relationships between trees and the animals that disperse and eat the seeds. He is perhaps best known for his scientific papers on seed-seedling conflicts.

“Geno shaped the ways that countless students and colleagues think about plant ecology, and I am among them,” Keyes said. “I hadn’t met Geno until I arrived here in 2024, but I had been influenced by his plant ecology writings almost three decades earlier, back when I was a graduate student in Oregon during the 1990s. Geno’s thoughtful work in ‘seed-seedling conflicts’ helped explain the patterns of ponderosa pine seedling recruitment and growth that I was observing.”

Schupp was a principal investigator of the Sage-STEP experiment, a more than 20-year study with sites across the Great Basin, investigating restoration of highly threatened sagebrush ecosystems. He was also a founding member of the science committee for the Canyonlands Research Center, a collaboration among academics, land managers and The Nature Conservancy to improve land management and facilitate climate adaptation in Southern Utah’s iconic public lands.

The Path to the “Best Job on the Planet”

After completing his bachelor's in 1977, he pursued a master’s in zoology studying ant-plant interactions on trees in the Cecropia genus in Ecuador. He read the first few chapters of “Spanish Made Simple” on the plane to Ecuador, which started a half-century of speaking Spanish with a huge vocabulary and little need for proper verb conjugation.

He began to pursue a doctorate in biology at the University of Iowa and lived in Panama on and off for six years studying seed predation on the small tree Faramea occidentalis at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island, the most-studied tropical forest in the world. He completed his Ph.D. in 1987 and was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Iowa until 1988.

After applying for seemingly hundreds of faculty positions, he read a job posting that he thought was written for him: assistant professor of plant population ecology in the Department of Range Science in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University. He applied for the position, landed an interview, was offered and accepted what became, according to him, the “best job on the planet.”

Award-winning Teaching and Research

A rigorous yet compassionate teacher and mentor, Schupp taught the popular general education undergraduate course Ecology of Our Changing World and the graduate course Plant Population Ecology, always sharing the mantra, “The only thing constant is change.”

In addition to creating the bachelor of science degree program in conservation and restoration ecology, he taught many of its upper-division courses. He mentored as a major professor four doctoral students and 20 master’s degree students. He served on graduate committees for many others.

“Geno contributed to the intellectual and social life of USU’s Ecology Center many ways,” said Professor Peter Adler. “He was the founding adviser of the Conservation and Restoration Ecology major and a longtime adviser for the graduate student committee that selects speakers for the Ecology Center seminars. He attended the seminars regularly and opened his home for receptions and social events at every opportunity. He was one of the people who really held the community together. The rest of us will have to step up to fill the void he leaves behind.”

Schupp’s research connections helped him recruit international post-doctoral researchers and graduate students to Utah State University. He twice took sabbatical leaves to Spain and was appointed a visiting researcher in the Integrative Ecology Group at the Estación Biológica de Doñana in Sevilla, Spain. He made an annual pilgrimage there, where he was warmly welcomed in Granada and Sevilla by colleagues and friends. Always the epicure, he arranged his travel to arrive in time for lunch, typically at one of his favorite tapas bars in Sevilla, or at a restaurant in the mountains near Granada.

Schupp was the first National Science Foundation-NATO Postdoctoral Fellow to Spain (1988-89) at the Estación Biológica de Doñana. He studied seed dispersal of the tree Prunus mahaleb in the Sierra de Cazorla mountain range of Southern Spain. This experience instilled in him an intense interest in the ecology of dryland ecosystems — and a passion for the food, drink, culture and lifestyle of Andalucia.

He served the university in many roles, including College of Natural Resources representative to the Honors Faculty Advisory Board for many years; CNR assistant dean for research and graduate education; CNR representative to the Fulbright Faculty Advisory Committee, and associate director of the Ecology Center. He received the 2014 Faculty University Service Award, 2009 Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year, and 2006 Undergraduate Advisor of the Year.

Professor Kari Veblen noted that Schupp prioritized celebrating USU students by participating in annual commencement ceremonies and seemed to have a perpetual spot on the College of Natural Resources graduation committee. He retired in 2025 from his final academic home in the Department of Wildland Resources in the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources.

A Legacy of Curiosity and Care

Schupp is survived by his life partner of 32 years, Janis Boettinger, as well as loving and dedicated extended family. Boettinger, a USU professor of soils, met Schupp in 1994 and “the rest is history,” as they would say. They were part of a fun, generous and caring community of friends in Cache Valley, Utah, and were well known in the philanthropic community.

For many years, Schupp was the master of ceremonies and auctioneer at Planned Parenthood’s annual Chocolate Festival. Geno and Janis attended events, hosted Spanish tapas and wine tastings and saffron dinners annually, and delivered appetizers during the pandemic to raise funds to support local nonprofit organizations.

A celebration of life will be scheduled soon.