Current Bullard Fellowship Recipients

Harvard Forest is pleased to announce the 2022-2023 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The purpose of this Fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making important contributions, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use and study of forested environments.

Fellows are supported by an endowment named after the benefactor Charles Bullard. While in residence at Harvard, Fellows interact with faculty and students, give seminars, participate in conferences and symposia and avail themselves of the University's great research resources. Applications are accepted beginning in August for Bullard Fellowships for the following year.

Describing the role of Bullard Fellows at Harvard, Missy Holbrook, Director of the Harvard Forest, explains, "Bullard Fellows are a vital and dynamic part of the Harvard Forest community. Their work is propelled by the important role forests play in the carbon cycle, in sustaining biodiversity, and in supporting human livelihoods. Over the past fifty years, Bullard collaborations have forged new paths of inquiry here at Harvard Forest and in nearly every corner of Harvard University. We look forward to welcoming a new cohort of Bullard Fellows who will work with us to advance our understanding of how forests can contribute to solving some of humanity's most pressing environmental challenges.”

2022-2023 Charles Bullard Fellows

Jennifer Bhatnagar is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Boston University. Her research focuses on the ecology of soil and plant-associated microorganisms, with a specific focus on decomposer fungi. She will spend her Bullard Fellowship studying relationships between organismal networks (fungi, plants, insects) and biogeochemical cycles during ecosystem recovery from historical land use change. She plans to collaborate with David Moreno Mateos. She earned her PhD at UC Irvine. She was awarded the NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Peter Paul Early Career Professorship. She serves as the ESA Microbial Ecology Section Chair.

Michael Dietze is a Professor of Earth & Environment at Boston University. His primary research interest is ecological forecasting. He will be using Harvard Forest as a testbed and anchor site for near-term iterative ecological forecasts of the terrestrial carbon cycle. He plans to collaborate with Neil Pederson. He earned his PhD in Ecology from Duke University. He is the Chair and Founding Director of the Ecological Forecasting Initiative, the author of Ecological Forecasting, and the former chair of NEON's STEAC.

Daniel Grossman is a freelance journalist who has won the Science Journalism Award three times. His journalism focuses on climate change and biodiversity. During his Bullard Fellowship, he will be reporting on the research at the Harvard Forest on temperate forest carbon uptake and release. He is also writing a book on the general topic of global uptake and release of carbon by forests and the effect on the trajectory of climate change. He plans to collaborate with Benton Taylor. He earned his PhD in Political Science at MIT.

Lynda Mapes is an environment reporter for The Seattle Times and the two-time winner of the first place international Kavli Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her work focuses on environmental topics and Indigenous governments and cultures. At Harvard Forest, she will be researching and writing Teachings of the Wild Trees, a book for a popular audience on the emergence of our scientific understanding of the unique importance of old growth and natural forest ecosystems for biodiversity, climate, and human well-being. Lynda will collaborate with Dave Orwig and Jonathan Thompson. She holds a degree in political theory from Oberlin College.

Rinku Roy Chowdhury is Professor of Geography at Clark University. Her work focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forested and urban ecosystems, including themes of smallholder decision-making, political economy, land stewardship and restoration, and climate resilience. Her Bullard project will analyze the resilience of forest commons in Central Massachusetts, integrating collective action theory and “design principles” for sustainable management with approaches in land system science and environmental history. She co-chaired the Global Land Programme and the American Association of Geographers Human Dimensions of Global Change specialty group, and was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Global Assessment. She will be collaborating with Jonathan Thompson.

Michael Stambaugh is an Associate Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Missouri. His primary research interests are the historical ecology of forests and wildland fire. He will spend his time at Harvard Forest completing a text describing environmental changes associated with changes in fire regimes across North America. He will be collaborating with Neil Pederson. He earned his PhD in Forest and Fire Ecology from the University of Missouri. In 2021, he received the US Forest Service Chief’s Award.