Hanqin Tian, the Solon and Martha Dixon Endowed Professor in Auburn University’s College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, has been elected as a fellow of the Ecological Society of America.
Tian was selected for the prestigious award for his groundbreaking research on ecosystem patterns and processes at multiple scales, providing a predictive understanding of how anthropogenic disturbances alter global carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Established in 1915, the Ecological Society of America, or ESA, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of professional ecologists. The fellows program was established in 2012 with the goal of honoring ESA members and supporting their competitiveness and advancement to leadership positions in the society, at their institutions and in broader society.
Elected for life, the designation of fellow is awarded to members like Tian who have made outstanding contributions to advancing or applying ecological knowledge in academics, government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector.
“I am proud to represent another milestone achievement for Auburn University,” Tian said. “It is a great honor to be recognized as one of five elected ESA fellows nationwide.”
Tian has a history of leading groundbreaking research, as he was also elected as a fellow to the American Geophysical Union, or AGU, in 2020 for his outstanding and pioneering contributions to understanding the role of terrestrial ecosystems in controlling sources and sinks of greenhouse gases.
In 2019, Tian received a prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship to support his work in climate change and food security.
He has co-led an international consortium of scientists from 48 research institutions in 14 countries under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project and leads Auburn’s Climate, Human and Earth System Science (CHESS) Cluster, an interdisciplinary group of faculty working to advance solutions to persistent environmental challenges.
Tian’s research has resulted in 350 publications, including 30 papers in Nature/Science/PNAS and their sister journals. His work has been cited over 33,000 times with an H-index of 87 so far.
“The college is proud that Tian has been elected as a fellow for the ESA,” said Janaki Alavalapati, dean of the College of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. “Tian is known as a preeminent scholar of global change and has been ranked among the world’s most influential climate scientists.”
Tian and other fellows will be formally recognized during an awards ceremony at ESA’s annual meeting in Montreal in August.
(Written by Gracen Carter)
