Co-Principal Investigators

Karen Abt Research Economist U.S.D.A. Forest Service Southern Research Station Research Interests: Nonindustrial private forests timber management, regional economic analysis, and natural resource accounting
Robert Abt Professor of Forestry Co-Director, Southern Forest Resource Assessment Consortium Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: regional timber supply modeling; economics of agroforestry; econometric applications in forestry.
Damian C. Adams Assistant Professor, Natural Resource Economics & Policy School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Bioeconomic modeling; policy and law analysis; invasive species, water resources, and carbon offsets.
Gwendolyn Boyd Associate Professor Forestry Director Department of Agriculture Alcorn State University Research Interests: Chemistry of loblolly pine and study of southern pine beetle infestations.
Ryan Boyles Director & State Climatologist State Climate Office of North Carolina North Carolina State University Research Interests: Climate services; local and regional climatology; weather and climate applications; observational sensors and systems; data management.
Harold Burkhart University Distinguished Professor Director, Forest Modeling Research Cooperative Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Modeling forest stand dynamics, growth and yield; applying quantitative analysis techniques to forestry problems.
Tom Byram Assistant Professor Director, Western Gulf Forest Tree Improvement Program Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Forest genetics and forest tree improvement.
Douglas Carter Professor, Forest Economics & Management School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Forest economics and management; timber supply and timber markets; economics of forest management alternatives; tropical forest economics.
Wendell Cropper Associate Professor, Biological Process Modeling School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Biological Process Modeling; computer simulation models of populations and physiological and ecosystem processes for southern pines and other Florida ecosystems.
John Davis Professor, Forest Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Co-Director, Forest Biology Research Cooperative School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Forest biotechnology and molecular biology; tree functional genomics to understand how genes function to create phenotypes or traits.
Jean-Christophe (J.C.) Domec Research Associate Professor Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Ecophysiology; plant water relations; forest ecology and wood science.
Puneet Dwivedi Assistant Professor Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources University of Georgia Role/research interests: Forest economics, policy and governance; woody feedstocks for bioenergy development; Life-cycle assessment of wood products; forest modeling at landscape level; regional markets of wood and timber products
Francisco Escobedo Associate Professor, Urban Forestry School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Urban and community forest management and planning, the ecosystem services of urban and urbanizing forests, and the effects of urbanization and other disturbances such as hurricanes and invasive woody plants on forests and human settlements.
Thomas Fox Professor of Forest Soils &Silviculture Co-Director, Forest Productivity Cooperative Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Forest fertilization and tree nutrition; silviculture of Appalachian hardwoods; intensive silviculture of southern pine plantations; forest soils; rhizosphere chemistry; environmental sustainability of intensive forest management; ecophysiology of managed forest stands.
Jianbang Gan Professor, Forest Management and Economics Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Economics of bioenergy and natural and human disturbances including climate change, wildfire, pest infestation, and invasion of alien species as related to forest resource management/conservation; forest product trade and socially or economically disadvantaged forestland owners.
Donald Grebner Professor Department of Forestry Mississippi State University Research Interests: Forest economics; international forestry; forest management; biomass and bioenergy; carbon sequestration; forest protection.
Sabine Grunwald Professor, GIS & Land Resources Soil and Water Science Department University of Florida Research Interests: Soil-landscape modeling; pedometrics; digital soil mapping; envirometrics; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); soil and remote sensing applications.
Thomas C. Hennessey Professor Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management Oklahoma State University Research Interests: Effects of water stress and soil nutrient deficiencies on tree growth and wood formation; quantification of forest physiological responses to silvicultural practices, including thinning, fertilization, and competition control.
Jason Holliday Assistant Professor Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Climatic adaptation in widely distributed tree species; transcriptional responses to abiotic stress; genotype-phenotype association studies; conservation genetics; genome-enabled breeding; adaptation of tree populations to climate change; landscape genomics.
Bill Hubbard Southern Regional Extension Forester Southern Research Extension Forestry University of Georgia Research Interests: Program evaluation; audience assessment.
Joshua Idassi Natural Resources Management Specialist Cooperative Extension, School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences North Carolina A&T University Research Interests: forestry Extension.
Fikret Isik Associate Professor of Quantitative Forest Genetics Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Quantitative genetics; genetic basis of disease resistance of forest trees; wood density assessment and genetics; application of molecular markers in tree breeding; genomic selection; conservation of forest genetic resources.
Kurt Johnsen Team Leader/Plant Physiologist Forest Genetics & Biological Foundations U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Research Interests: Forest tree growth and physiological responses to variation in water and nutrient availability, temperature, and atmospheric CO2 environment; process model development and evaluation.
Eric J. Jokela Professor of Silviculture and Forest Nutrition; Co-Director Forest Biology Research Cooperative School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Nutritional aspects of forest yield; understanding stand-level responses (e.g., canopy dynamics, light interception, carbon allocation) and ecosystem processes (soil nutrient supply, nutrient cycling, uptake and use efficiency) that influence the production ecology of managed coniferous forests.
James W. Jones Director, Florida Climate Institute Distinguished Professor Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering University of Florida Research Interests: Agricultural production systems analysis; simulation; crop and soil modeling; environmental effects on crop growth and yield; computer applications in agriculture.
Michael Kane Professor, Quantitative Silviculture Director, Plantation Management Research Cooperative Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Research Interests: Pine and hardwood silviculture; plantation growth and yield; decision tools; site productivity; tropical forestry.
John King Professor Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Assessing how the cycling and storage of carbon and water in forested ecosystems are influenced by climate variability, management, genetics, and the interaction of biotic and abiotic stresses; potential productivity and sustainability of short-rotation woody cropping systems for bioenergy.
Kostya V. Krutovsky Professor Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Department of Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding Büsgen-Institute Georg-August-University of Göttingen Research Interests: Genetic control of complex traits that define adaptation and response to environmental stresses in conifers, as well as traits of practical value, such as wood quality, growth, and disease resistance, which often have quantitative expression.
Carol Loopstra Associate Professor Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Gene expression and function during wood development; regulation and function of genes induced by water deficit stress.
Chris Maier Research Biological Scientist Forest Genetics & Biological Foundations U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Research Interests: Stand-level carbon cycling in loblolly pine in response to changes in nutrient and moisture availability; characterization of growth, carbon exchange and carbon allocation of loblolly pine under varied nutrient and atmospheric Carbon dioxide.
Daniel Markewitz Professor, Soil Site Productivity Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Research Interests: Quantifying how nutrient and hydrologic cycles control the chemistry of forest soils, drainage waters, and forest productivity.
Timothy A. Martin Professor, Tree Physiology Co-Director, Forest Biology Research Cooperative PINEMAP Project Director School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Tree physiology; mechanisms controlling productivity, carbon and water flux in trees and forests.
Mary Anne McGuire Assistant Research Scientist Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Research Interests: Tree physiology and forest ecophysiology; carbon fluxes and allocation in trees; effects of environmental factors (temperature, CO₂ concentration, soil moisture, soil fertility) on tree carbon gain.
Steve McKeand Professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources Director, North Carolina State University Cooperative Tree Improvement Program Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research interests: Support of the breeding program of the Tree Improvement Program, with primary responsibility in the breeding, testing, and selection phases of the program. Specific research interests include: genetic effects on nutritional and ecophysiological processes in forest trees, genetic and environmental control of wood properties, biotechnology/breeding interface, propagation effects on forest trees, seed orchard management, and genotype by environment interactions.
Steve McNulty USDA Associate Professor Project Leader, Southern Global Change Program Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Landscape to regional to scale forest ecosystem modeling including forest hydrology, productivity, resource economics, and wildlife and forest diversity; interactions and response of forests to global climate change and other environmental stresses.
Mark Megalos Extension Forestry Specialist Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Landowner incentives; programmatic impacts; biomass; conservation strategies.
Martha Monroe Professor and Extension Specialist School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Environmental education and extension; conservation behavior; human dimensions of wildland-urban interface issues.
Dana Nelson Project Leader/Research Geneticist Forest Genetics and Biological Foundations U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Research Interests: Host-pathogen genetics; population and quantitative genetics of southern pines; DNA marker development and genome mapping; comparative genomics of southern pines and related conifers.
Asko Noormets Research Associate Professor Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Forest ecophysiology; regulation of respiration; carbon and water balance in changing climate; management and disturbance effects on ecosystem function.
John Nowak Entomologist; Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Restoration Coordinator Forest Health Protection, Southern Region U.S. Forest Service Research Interests: Forest health protection; forest entomology; southern pine beetle.
Gary Peter Professor, Forest Genomics and Cell Biology Co-Director, Cooperative Forest Genetics Research Program Co-Director, Forest Biology Research Cooperative School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida Research Interests: Forest genomics, biotechnology, and cell biology; studies of development of plant vascular system.
Lisa Samuelson Professor School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Auburn University Research Interests: Tree physiological responses to environmental and silvicultural influences; climate change response and carbon sequestration in southern forests; influence of intensive management on soil respiration in loblolly pine; mechanisms controlling maximum carrying capacity in loblolly pine.
John Seiler The Honorable and Mrs. Shelton H. Short Professor of Forestry, Tree Physiology Specialist Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Environmental stress effects on woody plant physiology, including water pollutant stresses; physiological responses to silvicultural treatments; carbon sequestration.
Shobha Sriharan Professor Department of Agriculture and Human Ecology Virginia State University Research Interests: Environmental science; air and water quality; remote sensing and GIS; environmental education.
Jose Stape Associate Professor of Forestry Co-Director, Forest Productivity Cooperative Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Forest nutrition; plantation forestry in southeastern U.S. and Latin America.
Brian Strahm Assistant Professor of Forest Soils & Ecology Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: forest soils, ecological restoration, carbon and nutrient cycling, biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, reforestation, soil-plant-atmosphere interactions, sustainability, chemistry of soil interfaces, effects of land use and global change on soil properties, processes, and function.
Ge Sun Research Hydrologist Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Research Interests: Effects of climate change and land management on water quantity and quality; quantification of water balances at multiple temporal and spatial scales; impacts of global change on water supply and demand; hydrology of forested wetland ecosystems.
Eric Taylor Associate Professor & Extension Specialist Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, woody bioenergy, traditional pine silviculture, landscape forestry, and wildland/urban interface management opportunities and issues.
Robert Teskey Distinguished Research Professor, Physiology & Forest Ecology Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Research Interests: Physiology; forest ecology; how the environment affects physiological processes in trees, and, in turn, ecosystem functions; how trees acquire and use resources from the air and soil; how trees cope with biotic and abiotic stresses; factors that control forest productivity and carbon sequestration.
Quinn Thomas Assistant Professor Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: My interests broadly focus on understanding the interactions between forests and global environmental change. To address these questions, I work across a wide range of spatial scales, from individual trees to the globe using a broad set of tools, including ecosystem and Earth System models, remote sensing, large dataset analysis, and whole-ecosystem experiments.
Valerie Thomas Assistant Professor Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Remote sensing of forest canopy structure and function using lidar and hyperspectral technology; integration of these data with micrometeorological measurements to model canopy-scale photosynthesis; evaluation of the impact of local heterogeneity on estimates of carbon exchange.
Jason Vogel Assistant Professor Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Ecosystem management; the physical environment; plant and microbial communities effects on cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients through terrestrial ecosystems; forest productivity responses to silvicultural treatments and how this response affects soil carbon and nutrient cycling through changes in tree biomass allocation.
Jason West Assistant Professor Department of Ecosystem Science and Management Texas A&M University Research Interests: Roles of vegetation in ecosystem functions such as water, carbon and nitrogen cycling, with a particular interest in characteristics of tissues found below ground.
Ross Whetten Professor Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources North Carolina State University Research Interests: Biochemistry and molecular biology of tree growth and development.
Rod Will Professor Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management Oklahoma State University Research Interests: Effects of silvicultural treatments on growth, productivity, and physiology of forest stands; environmental effects on the photosynthesis and respiration of trees; canopy dynamics of forest stands; effects of global climate change on trees and forests.
Duncan Wilson Assistant Professor Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management Oklahoma State University Research Interests: Ecological data-model integration with Bayesian methods; ecological risk analysis; efficient sampling methods for terrestrial carbon stocks restoration ecology in prairie and pine-oak savanna systems, belowground dynamics, tree-grass interactions, carbon sequestration in tall-grass prairie-savanna systems; forest restoration dynamics and wildlife habitat interactions; soil-site quality relationships in dry-land ecosystems.
Randolph Wynne Professor of Forestry & Remote Sensing Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation Virginia Tech Research Interests: Application of remote sensing to forestry, natural resource management, ecological modeling, and earth system science.
Dehai Zhao Research Scientist (Graduate Faculty) Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Research Interests: Growth and yield modeling; ecological modeling; biomass production and carbon sequestration; forest inventory; quantitative management; quantitative silviculture.