| 1 | Name: | Dr. Christopher Bower Field | |
| Institution: | Stanford University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2022 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1953 | ||
Christopher Bower Field is the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D., also from Stanford, in 1981. He has also worked at the University of Utah, as the Director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Field has made fundamental contributions to understanding complex interactions between plants and land ecosystems, and CO2 emissions from human activities. His visionary research on the global carbon cycle showed that projections of future climate require the explicit consideration of land ecosystems and their management. His pioneering work established the links between plant photosynthesis and the global carbon budget, and also demonstrated the important role of nitrogen in limiting the uptake of carbon by natural ecosystems in a higher CO2 world. These and other insights enabled the design of effective strategies for managing agricultural fields, forests and other terrestrial ecosystems in response to climate change. He has also played critical international leadership roles in assessing impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities related to climate change. He has used research findings to guide policy makers and business leaders in making effective choices to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. He is co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (2007), and received the Heinz Award (2009), the Max Planck Research Award (2013), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2013), the Roger Revelle Medal (2014), and the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication (2015). Field has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2001 and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 2010. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2022. | |||