About Jill

Dr. Jill S. Baron is a Senior Research Ecologist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University and an ecosystem ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Her interests include applying ecosystem concepts to management of human-dominated regions, and understanding the biogeochemical and ecological effects of climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition to mountain ecosystems. She is founder and Co-Director of the John Wesley Powell Center for Earth System Science Analysis and Synthesis. Baron was Lead Author of the US Climate Change Science Program report on Climate Change Adaptation Options for National Parks, has given testimony to Congress on western acid rain and climate change issues, and was Editor-in-Chief of Issues in Ecology, an Ecological Society of America publication for non-scientists from 2009-2012. She is founder and Principal Investigator of the Loch Vale Watershed long-term monitoring and research program in Rocky Mountain National Park, an instrumented catchment with 30 years of continuous records. Baron is currently President-elect of the Ecological Society of America and will serve as President in 2013 and Past-President in 2014.

Website

Interests

  • Biogeochemical cycling/ecosystem ecology Fostering sustainable human societal/environmental interactions Increasing opportunities for women and minorities in science Increasing opportunities for scientific breakthroughs from synthesis activities

Education

Ph.D., Range Science - Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO, 1991

M.Sc., Institute for Environmental Studies - University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI, 1979

B.S., Botany - Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, 1976

Awards, Honors, Grants

  • Rocky Mountain National Park Stewardship Award, 2012
  • National Park Service Intermountain Regional Director’s Award for Natural Resource Research, 2012
  • Fellow, Ecological Society of America, 2012
  • USGS Shoemaker Award , 2011
  • Department of Interior Meritorious Service Award, 2002

Certifications

  • Certified Senior Ecologist by Ecological Society of America,

Memberships

  • Ecological Society of America
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • American Geophysical Union

Web Links

Loch Vale Watershed