Press Releases
December 13, 2010
Eric Davidson Named to Leadership Positions with the International Nitrogen Initiative.
Eric Davidson, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Research Center, has been named Coordinator of the North American Regional Center for the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI).
He will also serve as a member of the Steering Committee for INI, the core body that will lead the activities of the programme.
According to Davidson, “This is a great opportunity to help frame the issues of excess nitrates in groundwater and estuaries and in air pollution with sound scientific analysis of the issues and options for their solutions. I manage our own denitrification system at the Woods Hole Research Center, and now I appreciate this opportunity to go from local to continental-scale nitrogen assessment.”
WHRC Senior Scientist Eric Davidson gives a presentation at a December INI meeting in New Delhi, India.
Davidson is an ecologist, soil scientist, and biogeochemist interested in the role of soil microorganisms as processors of carbon and nitrogen. He has studied the exchange of carbon and nitrogen gases, including heat-trapping greenhouse gases, between the soil and the atmosphere, as well as nitrates leaching into groundwater. His research addresses how human management of the land affects losses of nitrogen and other elements to the air and water.
Davidson is also interested in the interface of science, policy, and education, and has published on ecological economics and human alteration of the nitrogen cycle. He has been at the WHRC since 1991 and previously held positions as National Research Council Associate at the NASA Ames Research Center and as Postdoctoral Research Associate in Soil Microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his doctorate in forestry at North Carolina State University. In addition to these roles with the INI, Davidson is the President-Elect of the Biogeosciences section of the American Geophysical Union and is the Project Scientist for NASA’s Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in the Amazon.
The INI is dedicated to optimizing the use of nitrogen in food production, while minimizing the negative effects of nitrogen on human health and the environment as a result of food and energy production. Formally created in 2003, the INI is sponsored by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP). Among the many facets of the International Nitrogen Initiative are scientific assessment, development of solutions to solve a wide variety of nitrogen-related problems, and interactions with policymakers to implement these solutions.
For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Braun
Director of Communications
Woods Hole Research Center
508 444 1509
