RESEARCH INTERESTS: Effects of global environmental change (urbanization, N deposition, excess fertilizer, rising CO2, emerging contaminants) on the biogeochemistry of rivers, wetlands and watersheds.
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In this Helium podcast interview from May 2019, Emily talks with Christine Ogilvie Hendren and Matt Hotze. Here is their summary. How do make space for the joy in your career? Early on it feels like you must say yes to anything and everything but as Dr. Emily Bernhardt explains in this interview it quickly shifts to having to make space. This is space for those things that will both define your career and bring you joy. One strategy she shares is putting both financial and time price tags on projects to determine if you want to invest. She also provides encouragement all PhDs (or almost PhDs) out there who want to blend life and career into a joyous mix.
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MY PATH TO BECOMING A SCIENTIST:
I grew up in a small town in western North Carolina, gaining a love of nature from frequent hikes in the Appalachian mountains and epic family vacations driving across the country to visit national parks and seashores in a bright orange Volkswagen pop top camper. By the time I started college at UNC Chapel Hill in 1992, I was convinced that I wanted to become an ecologist and I was particularly excited about wetlands biogeochemistry (though I had not yet learned that term) after reading John and Mildred Teal's Life and Death of a Salt Marsh. As an undergraduate at UNC I took every ecology course on offer and worked in the labs of nearly every ecology faculty. After counting tree seedlings in historic transects for Bob Peet, developing marine food webs with Pete Peterson, conducting an honors thesis on riparian buffer effectiveness with Seth Reice, and spending a formative summer as an REU student at the University of Michigan Biological Station working on stream food webs with Jan Stevenson I was definitely hooked on a career in ecological research. In my senior year, I was lucky to be awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship which helped get me accepted into a truly wonderful graduate position being coadvised by Cornell faculty Bobbi Peckarsky and Institute of Ecosystem Studies Director Gene Likens. I conducted my dissertation research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, where I focused on the role of headwater streams in modifying watershed export of nutrients. During my graduate career I also took advantage of opportunities to travel to Venezuela and Chile to conduct research in collaboration with Alex Flecker and Doris Soto and to spend time learning all about mayflies in Bobbi's Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory streams. In my final year of graduate school I was presenting a poster presentation at ESA when Bill Schlesinger walked up to ask me about my work. After a very wide ranging discussion of hard core nitrogen biogeochemistry Bill offered me a postdoctoral position on the spot. My official offer letter from Bill was mailed to me along with a picture of the Duke FACE site and a post it note reading "hang over desk for motivation". I guess it helped, because I defended my PhD on schedule in May 2001. I then moved to Duke and begin to work on nitrogen cycling in a very different context - the rooting zones of pine trees in very poorly drained soils. While at Duke, I also had the opportunity to teach Biogeochemistry with Bill Schlesinger for the first time (a daunting challenge). In 2002, I took advantage of an exciting opportunity to return to aquatic systems by joining Margaret Palmer and Dave Allan in organizing the National River Restoration Science Synthesis, a large group of river scientists from across the country brought together with funds from NSF's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis Center (NCEAS). While working in Margaret Palmer's lab at the University of Maryland, I had the opportunity to help Margaret organize the Ecological Society of America's Visions project, aimed at formulating the future priorities for ecological science in the 21st century.
In 2003 I was offered the chance to return to Duke as a faculty member, being hired to fill Bill Schlesinger's line as a biogeochemist in Duke's Department of Biology, vacated when he became the dean of Duke's Nicholas School. I joined the department in 2004 along with my husband (and fellow ecologist) Justin Wright. Since arriving at Duke I have managed to convince 17 amazing graduate students and 12 incredible postdocs to join me in building a very productive and stimulating research group. Together we have developed exciting research programs on topics as diverse as soil priming, nanomaterial toxicity, ecosystem development, wetland restoration, stream restoration, urban thermal pollution, saltwater incursion and watershed nitrogen cycling. I am so proud of the work these great people have done and are doing. You can learn about what our lab alumni are up to on our People page and read about the work we have done together on our Publications page.
I have two kids, Hannah (b. 2004) and Gwyneth (b. 2007) who keep me very busy and entertained outside of work hours. I'm working hard to make sure they get those epic nature adventures that so inspired me to love the environment and to be curious about how it works.
I grew up in a small town in western North Carolina, gaining a love of nature from frequent hikes in the Appalachian mountains and epic family vacations driving across the country to visit national parks and seashores in a bright orange Volkswagen pop top camper. By the time I started college at UNC Chapel Hill in 1992, I was convinced that I wanted to become an ecologist and I was particularly excited about wetlands biogeochemistry (though I had not yet learned that term) after reading John and Mildred Teal's Life and Death of a Salt Marsh. As an undergraduate at UNC I took every ecology course on offer and worked in the labs of nearly every ecology faculty. After counting tree seedlings in historic transects for Bob Peet, developing marine food webs with Pete Peterson, conducting an honors thesis on riparian buffer effectiveness with Seth Reice, and spending a formative summer as an REU student at the University of Michigan Biological Station working on stream food webs with Jan Stevenson I was definitely hooked on a career in ecological research. In my senior year, I was lucky to be awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship which helped get me accepted into a truly wonderful graduate position being coadvised by Cornell faculty Bobbi Peckarsky and Institute of Ecosystem Studies Director Gene Likens. I conducted my dissertation research at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, where I focused on the role of headwater streams in modifying watershed export of nutrients. During my graduate career I also took advantage of opportunities to travel to Venezuela and Chile to conduct research in collaboration with Alex Flecker and Doris Soto and to spend time learning all about mayflies in Bobbi's Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory streams. In my final year of graduate school I was presenting a poster presentation at ESA when Bill Schlesinger walked up to ask me about my work. After a very wide ranging discussion of hard core nitrogen biogeochemistry Bill offered me a postdoctoral position on the spot. My official offer letter from Bill was mailed to me along with a picture of the Duke FACE site and a post it note reading "hang over desk for motivation". I guess it helped, because I defended my PhD on schedule in May 2001. I then moved to Duke and begin to work on nitrogen cycling in a very different context - the rooting zones of pine trees in very poorly drained soils. While at Duke, I also had the opportunity to teach Biogeochemistry with Bill Schlesinger for the first time (a daunting challenge). In 2002, I took advantage of an exciting opportunity to return to aquatic systems by joining Margaret Palmer and Dave Allan in organizing the National River Restoration Science Synthesis, a large group of river scientists from across the country brought together with funds from NSF's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis Center (NCEAS). While working in Margaret Palmer's lab at the University of Maryland, I had the opportunity to help Margaret organize the Ecological Society of America's Visions project, aimed at formulating the future priorities for ecological science in the 21st century.
In 2003 I was offered the chance to return to Duke as a faculty member, being hired to fill Bill Schlesinger's line as a biogeochemist in Duke's Department of Biology, vacated when he became the dean of Duke's Nicholas School. I joined the department in 2004 along with my husband (and fellow ecologist) Justin Wright. Since arriving at Duke I have managed to convince 17 amazing graduate students and 12 incredible postdocs to join me in building a very productive and stimulating research group. Together we have developed exciting research programs on topics as diverse as soil priming, nanomaterial toxicity, ecosystem development, wetland restoration, stream restoration, urban thermal pollution, saltwater incursion and watershed nitrogen cycling. I am so proud of the work these great people have done and are doing. You can learn about what our lab alumni are up to on our People page and read about the work we have done together on our Publications page.
I have two kids, Hannah (b. 2004) and Gwyneth (b. 2007) who keep me very busy and entertained outside of work hours. I'm working hard to make sure they get those epic nature adventures that so inspired me to love the environment and to be curious about how it works.
PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION
UNC Chapel Hill
Cornell University Duke University University of Maryland |
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PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2020-2023
2020-present 2017-2019 2016 - present 2010 - 2016 2004 - 2010 2005 - Present |
Chair, Department of Biology
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Jerry G. and Patricia Hubbard Professor of Biology Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University Secondary Appointment, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University |
AWARDS:
2023 Fellow, National Academy of Sciences
2022 Fellow, American Geophysical Union
2020 Fellow, Society for Freshwater Science
2018 Fellow, Ecological Society of America
2017 Bass Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Research, Duke University
2016 Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow, Duke University
2015 Science Communication Fellow, Duke University
2015 Mercer Award, Ecological Society of America - together with Marcelo Ardón, Jen Morse and Ben Colman
2015 Leopold Leadership Fellow, Leopold Leadership Program
2015 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany
2014 International IGB Fellowship in Freshwater Sciences, Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
2013 Yentsch-Schindler Early Career Award, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
2010 Langford Lecturer, Duke University
2008 Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor Award, Duke University Postdoctoral Association
2005 NSF CAREER Award
2004 H.G. Hynes Award for New Investigators from the North American Benthological Society
2002 Wildco Award for Best Oral Presentation from the North American Benthological Society
1996 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2023 Fellow, National Academy of Sciences
2022 Fellow, American Geophysical Union
2020 Fellow, Society for Freshwater Science
2018 Fellow, Ecological Society of America
2017 Bass Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Research, Duke University
2016 Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow, Duke University
2015 Science Communication Fellow, Duke University
2015 Mercer Award, Ecological Society of America - together with Marcelo Ardón, Jen Morse and Ben Colman
2015 Leopold Leadership Fellow, Leopold Leadership Program
2015 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany
2014 International IGB Fellowship in Freshwater Sciences, Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
2013 Yentsch-Schindler Early Career Award, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
2010 Langford Lecturer, Duke University
2008 Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor Award, Duke University Postdoctoral Association
2005 NSF CAREER Award
2004 H.G. Hynes Award for New Investigators from the North American Benthological Society
2002 Wildco Award for Best Oral Presentation from the North American Benthological Society
1996 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
SERVICE TO THE DISCIPLINE:
- Jury Chair, BBVA Foundations Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Ecology and Conservation Biology (2017-present)
- Member, Board of Trustees and Chair of Science Advisory Committee, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (2020-present)
- President Elect, Biogeosciences Section of the American Geophysical Union (2022-2024)
- Member, Science and Technical Advisory Committee, National Ecological Observatory Network (2020-2022)
- President, Society for Freshwater Science (2016-2017)
- National Academy Panel member, Committee for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (2010-2012);
- Prior Editorial Board Member: Science Advances, Limnology and Oceanography, JGR Biogeosciences, Ecosystems
- Ecological Society of America Ecological Visions Committee (2003); Publications Committee (2003-present); Secretary, Biogeosciences Section (2006-2007);
- Member of the NSF funded Frontiers in Ecosystem Science working group (2012-2013)
- American Fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, board member (2016-2019)