Biography

Robert B. Jackson is Douglas Provostial Professor in the School of Earth Sciences. He studies how people affect the earth, including research on the global carbon and water cycles, biosphere/atmosphere interactions, energy use, and climate change.

Jackson’s team published the first studies examining fracking and drinking water quality and, with colleagues, mapped thousands of natural gas leaks across cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C.  He is also examining the effects of climate change and droughts on forest mortality and ecosystems.

Jackson has received numerous awards. He is a Fellow in the American Geophysical Union and the Ecological Society of America and was honored at the White House with a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering.  In recent years he directed the DOE National Institute for Climate Change Research for the southeastern U.S., co-chaired the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, and is currently co-chair of the Global Carbon Project (www.globalcarbonproject.org).

An author and photographer, Rob has published a trade book about the environment (The Earth Remains Forever, University of Texas Press) and two books of children’s poems, Animal Mischief and Weekend Mischief (Highlights Magazine and Boyds Mills Press).  His photographs have appeared in many media outlets, including the NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, US News and World Report, Nature, and National Geographic.