Harvard Forest Announces 2006-2007 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research

Harvard Forest is pleased to announce the 2006-2007 incoming Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The purpose of this fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making an important contribution, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use of forested environments. Between five to eight distinguished practitioners and academics from across the United States and from around the globe spend one to two semesters based in Cambridge or at the Harvard Forest in Petersham conducting research on a particular field. While in residence at Harvard, Fellows, who are supported by an endowment named after the benefactor Charles Bullard, interact with faculty and students, give seminars, participate in conferences and symposia and avail themselves of the University's great research resources. Click here for a list of Bullard fellows from 1962 to the present.

The 2006-2007 Fellows were selected from a large pool of international applicants. "The Harvard community benefits immensely from the presence of the outstanding scholars and fellows supported by the Bullard program. The breadth of research encompassed by this year's class of scholars is quite vast, ranging from fine root function to long-term, continental scale climate patterns. In addition, three of our visitors will be based in Cambridge, working with FAS faculty in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) and Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS)."

The Charles Bullard Fellows for the 2006-2007 Academic year are:

Dr. Hormoz BassiriRad is a plant physiological ecologist who explores the responses of portions of below-ground plants and ecosystems to global climate change. At Harvard, he will work with Missy Holbrook, Professor of Biology and Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. This work will focus on the impact of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on root water and nutrient transport. Dr. BassiriRad is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Biological Sciences and received his PhD from the University of Arizona at Tucson. He began his ten month Fellowship in October 2006.

Dr. James Bever has pioneered the study of feedbacks between plants and the soil community which has changed the way ecologist think about maintaining plant diversity. He is a professor at Indiana University at Bloomington in the Department of Biology. Dr. Bever received his PhD from Duke University. At Harvard, he will work with Professor Anne Pringle in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology on the synthesis and meta-analysis of data relating to mycorrhizal fungi community structure and dynamics in plant invasions. He began his six month Fellowship in September 2006.

Dr. Adrien Finzi's primary research focus is on the response of forest ecosystems to rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide. During his fellowship, he will focus on the role of N as a constraint to the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide in temperate forests. Dr. Finzi is Associate Director of the Stable Isotope Laboratory and an Associate Professor of Biology at Boston University. He received his PhD in Ecology from the University of Connecticut and was formerly a Distinguished Hollaender Fellow for Global Change at the US Dept. of Energy. Dr. Finzi began his six month fellowship in July 2006.

Dr. Sherilyn Fritz investigates long-term environmental change, particularly use of the fossil record to reconstruct natural patterns of climate variation and to evaluate human impacts on ecosystems. She will be in residence at the Harvard Forest working closely with David Foster on the impacts of mid-Holocene and Little Ice Age changes in climate on forest and lake ecosystems and human society. She will also work on a paper comparing Holocene dynamics in North and South America. Dr. Fritz is the Willa Cather Professor at the University of Nebraska, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and School of Biological Sciences. Fritz is a member of the U.S. National Committee of the International Quaternary Union (INQUA), under the auspices of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and also serves as a councilor on the Commission for Paleoecology and Human Evolution in INQUA. Dr. Fritz received her PhD in Ecology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Fritz began her six month fellowship in September 2006.

Jerry Jenkins has spent over 30 years conducting major botanical surveys throughout North America and is the author of several books, including the Adirondack Atlas, a series of volumes on natural resources geography of Vermont, an illustrated history of acid rain research, and a soon to be published guide to the mosses of eastern North America. During his time at Harvard, he will complete ongoing work on the vascular flora of Harvard Forest, inventory the bryophytes of Harvard Forest, and write and illustrate a book on the major forest communities of the northeastern United States. Mr. Jenkins is a researcher with the North American Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Adirondack Nature Conservancy.

Dr. John McDonald has worked as a management-oriented wildlife biologist with state agencies, as an academic researcher, and as a state and federal regulatory administrator. His primary research interest is in wildlife, particularly on how large animals interactive in the Northeast habitat, particularly white-tail deer, black bear, moose and Canada lynx. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of The Wildlife Society. He currently is a wildlife research specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He will work closely with ecologists at the Harvard Forest to investigate the history of white-tailed deer populations in Massachusetts and the limiting factors of distribution of the geographic range of moose in North America during his seven month fellowship beginning November 2006.

Dr. Scott Pearson's research focus is on effect of landscape change on terrestrial biodiversity. During his Bullard Fellowship, he will study the influence of land-use history in New England and the Southern Appalachians on present-day diversity in temperate forest ecosystems and develop methods to model biodiversity responses to future landscape change in these two regions. Dr. Pearson is a Professor and the Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at Mars Hill College in NC and serves as co-Principal Investigator at the NSF Coweeta Long Term Ecological Site. He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Georgia-Athens. He will be a Fellow for nine months beginning in September 2006.