Dr. Jennifer Y. King began her appointment as an Associate Professor on July 1. She hails from the University of Minnesota where she was an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. Dr. King was recruited into the Earth System Science departmental emphasis area with a research focus on biogeochemical processes. Her research interest is in the interactions between soils, plants, and the atmosphere, particularly the investigation of how ecosystem and biogeochemical processes respond to natural and human-induced environmental changes, and how those processes may further modify the environment. Jennifer will teach her first class (Biogeochemistry) in Winter Quarter, 2009
Dr. King received her PhD in Earth System Science from UC Irvine in 1999; she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, doing soil-plant-nutrient research with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, from 1999 to 2001; and she was an Assistant Professor at Minnesota from 2002 to 2008. Her numerous awards include the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States Research Excellence Award in 2000, a USDA Agricultural Research Service Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 1999 to 2001, an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Journal of Environmental Quality in 2002, and a nomination for the John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising from the University of Minnesota in 2008. She has coauthored articles in both Science and Nature, as well as other major journals in her field, and she is currently working on ongoing research grants from the USGS/University of Minnesota Water Resources Center and the NSF’s Division of Environmental Biology (Ecosystem Science).
Jennifer comments, “I am thrilled to be joining the Geography Department. I think it will be an ideal environment for me to integrate my research focus on biogeochemical processes with my long-standing interest in studying the Earth as a system. I look forward to getting to know everyone!” I know I speak for the entire Department in extending a warm welcome to her!
