[en] Ten from eighty-nine strains of thermophilic fungi Thermomyces lanuginosus produced high level insoluble xylan degrading enzyme when cultured in submerge condition using untreated corncob as a substrate. Strain of T. lanuginosus THKU56 produced high level of insoluble xylan degrading enzyme with the most stable which was remained 28.2 and 58.9 % after treated at pH 3.5 and 70 ^o C for 1 h, respectively. To improve xylanase production, the strain was subjected to mutate using gamma ray at 0.4 - 1.6 kGy. The result showed the mutant strains produced insoluble xylanase activity lesser than wild type. Thus wild type strain THKU56 was then selected as potent strains for enzyme production and medium optimization was investigated using a central composite design. The four components, corncobs, yeast extract, KH₂PO₄ and Tween₈0, were parameters of this study. It was found that corncobs and yeast extract were discovered to affect on the xylanase production. The optimal concentration of the active nutrients for xylanase production were 41 g/l of corncobs and 24 g/l of yeast extract, which gave a predicted yield of 526.7 units/ml after 5 days culture at a temperature of 50 ^o C. The xylanase activity obtained from the experiment was 541 units/ml that was close to the predicted value