BIO
Emily Bernhardt is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Duke University. A specialist in ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry, her research focuses on tracking the movements of elements (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and, increasingly, iron, sulfur, trace metals, and nanoparticles) within and between ecosystems, and on how the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems are being altered by land use change (urbanization, agriculture, mining), global change and chemical pollution, in order to determine whether and how ecosystem change can be mitigated or prevented. An ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Ecology and Environmental Science in 2020 and 2021, she is also a former president of the Society for Freshwater Science (which elected her a Fellow in 2020), and a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the Ecological Society of America. Her various distinctions include the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
