Dr. Joe McFadden was appointed Assistant Professor in the UCSB Department of Geography starting July 1. Dr. McFadden comes to us from the University of Minnesota where he was Assistant Professor of Global Ecology from 2002 to 2008. He received his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 1998; he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks from 1998 to 1999; and he was a Research Associate in Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University from 1999 to 2001.
Dr. McFadden’s research is focused on understanding the consequences of land-cover and land-use change. His recent work includes climate-induced vegetation change in the Arctic and its feedbacks to the atmosphere and hydrosphere, and the effects of urban and suburban development on regional water, energy, and carbon exchange. He received a NASA New Investigator Award in 2004 and he has published widely in such prestigious journals as Science, Ecology, and the Journal of Climate. He is currently working on ongoing research grants from NASA’s Earth Science Division and NSF’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program.
In describing his current research, Dr. McFadden writes: “Much of my current work is aimed at improving our understanding of developed (i.e. urban, suburban, and peri-urban) landscapes as a component of the changing mosaic of land uses in the United States. Specifically, I am determining how ecological and anthropogenic processes control the spatial and temporal dynamics of carbon fluxes in the built environment. This will provide a basis for representing developed land in regional and global carbon models, which do not currently include the effects of urban ecosystems.”
Dr. McFadden will be teaching Geography 115A (Earth from Above) and 200A (Introduction to Geography Research) this Fall Quarter. As for his move to Santa Barbara and the Department, he comments: “I am very excited to be joining the faculty and I’m looking forward to developing new interdisciplinary connections with my new colleagues and graduate students in Geography.”
