Professor Whendee Silver

Dr Whendee Silver is the Rudy Grah Endowed Chair and Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Biogeochemistry in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at U C Berkeley. Her work seeks to determine the biogeochemical effects of climate change and human impacts on the environment, and the potential for mitigating these effects. The Silver Lab is currently working on climate change mitigation potential of working lands, effects of drought and extreme climate events on forests and grasslands, and greenhouse gas dynamics of natural and restored peatlands and wetlands.

Professor Silver is the lead scientist of the Marin Carbon Project, which is determining the potential for land-based climate change mitigation. Current projects include converting high-emission organic waste streams to soil amendments for carbon sequestration and the use of enhanced weathering of rock dust to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Silver Lab employs field, laboratory, and modelling approaches in their research. They have pioneered field applications of environmental sensing of greenhouse gases and associated drivers. The Silver Lab was awarded the Innovation Prize by the American Carbon Registry for this work.

Professor Silver is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Ecological Society of America. She is also a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow. In 2016, she was named a University of California Climate Champion for outstanding research, teaching, and public service in the areas of climate change solutions, action and broad engagement. She has over 180 peer-reviewed publications. She received her PhD in Ecosystem Ecology from Yale University.