Drs. Catalina Segura, Posy Busby, and Brooke Penaluna will be named as co-signatory PIs on the Andrews Forest LTER8 grant and will join our Executive Committee. Dr. Segura is a hydrologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Engineering and Resource Management. She recently received an NSF Career award for her ground-breaking work on hydrology at the Andrews Forest and beyond. Dr. Busby is a microbiologist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology who began her relationship with the Andrews Forest as an undergraduate REU student, and now focuses on tree microbiomes at the HJA and their role in affecting tree responses to climate change . Dr. Penaluna is a stream ecologist with a long history of fish and aquatic ecology research at the Andrews Forest, and whose research plies the intersection between the aquatic world and implications for management and policy planning. Dr. Penaluna is the newly-appointed US Forest Service Lead Scientist for the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. All three have a long history of research at the Andrews Forest, ongoing research programs there, and contributed substantially to our successful LTER8 proposal.
Drs. Julia Jones and Sherri Johnson have stepped off as co-signatories on the LTER grant and as members of the LTER Executive Committee. Dr. Jones is a University Distinguished Professor of Geography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Johnson is a US Forest Service research ecologist who has served as the US Forest Service Lead Scientist for the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. We want to extend a big thank you to Drs. Jones and Johnson for their nearly two decades of service on the LTER Executive Committee. They have contributed valuable research and leadership to our program, and we appreciate that they will continue to be involved in research at the Andrews Forest in the future.
After a period of overlap, Dr. Matthew Betts will replace Dr. Michael Paul Nelson as the Lead PI for the Andrews Forest LTER program. Dr. Betts is a Professor of landscape ecology in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society in the OSU College of Forestry with a long history of research at the Andrews Forest. Dr Nelson, an environmental philosopher and ethicist, served as Lead PI for ten years and oversaw two successful renewals of our LTER funding. Dr. Nelson will continue his research on how values affect the ways science is used in land-use decisions.
