TOUR LECTURERS
Whendee Silver
Dr. Whendee Silver is the Distinguished Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. She also holds an appointment as a faculty scientist in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Her work seeks to determine the biogeochemical effects of climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the potential for mitigating these effects. The Silver Lab is currently working on climate change mitigation potential of working lands, effects of drought and extreme climate events in tropical forests and temperate grasslands, and greenhouse gas dynamics of drained agricultural peatlands as well as natural and restored peatlands and wetlands. Professor Silver is the lead scientist of the Marin Carbon Project, which is determining the potential for land-based climate change mitigation. Current projects include converting high-emission organic waste streams to lower emitting soil amendments for carbon sequestration, the use of enhanced weathering of rock dust to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the effects of combined organic and inorganic amendments on soils and ecosystems. The Silver Lab employs field, laboratory, and modeling approaches in their research. They have pioneered field applications of continuous environmental sensing of greenhouse gases and associated drivers.
Silver was elected a lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Ecological Society of America, and the Kavli Frontiers of Science. The Silver Lab was awarded the Innovation Prize by the American Carbon Registry. In 2016, she was named a University of California Climate Champion for outstanding research, teaching, and public service in the areas of climate change solutions, action, and broad engagement. She received her PhD in Ecosystem Ecology from Yale University.
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