Biographical Sketch
Phil
Robertson is Professor of Ecosystem Science in the Department of Crop
and Soil Sciences at MSU, with which he has been
associated since 1981. Since 1988 he has directed the NSF Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER) Program in Agricultural Ecology at the W.K.
Kellogg Biological Station, where he is a resident faculty. He currently serves as chair of the U.S. LTER Network's Science Council and Executive Board. He is also program leader for sustainability in the Department of Energy's Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
Dr. Robertson's research
interests include the biogeochemistry and ecology of field crop
ecosystems, including biofuel systems, and in particular nitrogen and carbon dynamics, greenhouse
gas fluxes, and the functional significance of microbial diversity in
these systems. His undergraduate teaching includes Agricultural Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Soil Biology courses.
Dr. Robertson has been a SCOPE-Mellon
postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1980-1981)
and a sabbatical scholar at Cooperative Research Centres in Adelaide
(1993-1994) and Brisbane (2001-2002), Australia. His service also includes past
membership on the U.S. Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Committee, chairmanships of competitive grants panels at the USDA (the NRI and Fund
for Rural America Programs), and membership on several NSF panels in the
Biological and Geosciences directorates. He served on the
National Research Council Committee to Evaluate the USDA NRI Program
(1998-1999), and chaired the Environment Subcommittee of the NRC
Committee on Opportunities in Agriculture (2000-2002). He has testified
before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition Committee and participated in briefings for the U.S. House Science and Agriculture Committees. He has also served as an editor
for the journals Ecology, Ecological Monographs, and Plant and Soil and is currently an editor
for Biogeochemistry. In 2003 he was elected a
Fellow in the Soil Science Society of America. In 2005 he received MSU's Distinguished Faculty award. Dr. Robertson received
his BA from Hampshire College and his PhD in Biology from Indiana
University. |