Watershed Function – Scientific Focus Area
Heidi Steltzer contributed an Op-Ed to the Durango Herald entitled “Protecting people through the science of studying plants”. In her piece, Steltzer highlights some of the insights gained by studying plants, including in mountainous watersheds. Read the full story here.
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has named Susan Hubbard, Watershed Function SFA Director, as a 2017 AGU Fellow.
Every year, the AGU Fellow program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the Earth and space sciences. Vetted by a committee of AGU Fellows, honorees represent no more than 0.1 percent of AGU’s 60,000 members. Read more »
A new DOE project led by Deb Agarwal (lead of Watershed Function SFA Data Management and Assimilation) will develop an archive that will serve as a repository for hundreds of DOE-funded research projects under the agency’s Environmental System Science (ESS) umbrella.
The project is a $3.6 million investment by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Science that will enable researchers, environmental and agricultural stakeholders, as well as members of the public to access the data.
Reposted from the Berkeley Lab EESA blog
Jill Banfield, Faculty Scientist in Earth & Environmental Sciences at LBNL, Professor at UC Berkeley, and member of the SFA team, has been named 2017’s recipient of the V.M. Goldschmidt Award. This award recognizes major achievements in geochemistry or cosmochemistry. Her work focuses on geomicrobiology—natural microbial communities in the terrestrial subsurface, sediments, water, biofilms and animals. She also studies nanoparticle formation and behavior in the natural environment.
Jill will receive her award at the Goldschmidt 2017 conference in Paris, France, this August.
Read the Geochemical Society’s announcement.
Watershed Function SFA research—leading to the discovery of previously unknown species throughout the bacterial branches of the Tree of Life—was included in Discover Magazine’s “Top 100 Stories of 2016“, at #97 in the list.
The accolade accentuates the abundant media coverage the research garnered in April 2016 when it was first published. In fact, the article’s Altmetric score earned it spot #79 in Altmetric’s “Top 100 Articles of 2016“.
This week, Heidi Steltzer will embark on an Antarctic voyage as one of the first participants of “Homeward Bound“, a strategic and science initiative for women. Read her blog post here.