Phil Robertson Biosketch

Phil Robertson is University Distinguished Professor of Ecosystem Science at MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) and in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, with which he’s been associated from 1981. From 1988 to 2017 he directed NSF’s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program in Agricultural Ecology at KBS, and from 2017 to 2021 was science director for DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. He currently directs the USDA’s Long-term Agroecosystem Research site at KBS.

Dr. Robertson’s research interests include the biogeochemistry and ecology of field crop ecosystems and in particular nitrogen and carbon dynamics, greenhouse gas fluxes, and responses to climate change, including land-based mitigation strategies. His undergraduate and graduate teaching has included Agricultural Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Soil Biology courses.

Dr. Robertson has been a SCOPE-Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a sabbatical scholar at Cooperative Research Centres in Adelaide and Brisbane, Australia. His service includes membership on the Department of Energy’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC) and past membership on the U.S. Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Committee, chairmanships of competitive grant panels at the USDA, and membership on various NSF grant panels in the Biological and Geosciences directorates. He served as chair of the U.S. LTER Network from 2008-2011 and was a lead author for the 2014 U.S. National Climate Assessment. He has served on National Research Council Committees and chaired the Environment Subcommittee of the NRC Committee on Opportunities in Agriculture. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition Committee and participated in briefings for the U.S. House and Senate Science and Technology and Agriculture Committees.  He has also served as an editor for the journals Ecology, Ecological Monographs, Plant and Soil, Biogeochemistry, and PNAS.

Dr. Robertson is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, the Ecological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Robertson received his BA from Hampshire College and his PhD in Biology (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) from Indiana University.

Publications
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