Dr. Jessica Green is an engineer and ecologist who specializes in biodiversity theory and microbial systems. She uses approaches at the interface of microbiology, ecology, and data science to understand and model complex ecosystems with trillions of diverse microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans, and with the environment. Jessica is a Professor of Biology at the University of Oregon, where she co-directs the Biology and Built Environment Center (BioBE), and is external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. She has been honored with numerous awards including a Blaise Pascal International Research Chair, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and a TED Senior Fellowship. She has received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous industry partners. Jessica received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from University of California Berkeley, an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley, and a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Magna Cum Laude from UCLA.
As an applied and theoretical ecologist, Dr. Green is interested in biological diversity and asking questions about patterns in the distribution and abundance of species. The overarching aim of her work is to understand the forces that organize heterogeneous ecological systems, and to apply this understanding to help inform conservation policy and management decisions. I use interdisciplinary approaches at the interface of microbiology, ecology, mathematics, informatics, and computer science. Current systems of study include soil microbial communities in marine, alpine and mediterranean systems. Specific attention has been directed to exploring patterns and principles that may be common to microbes, plants and animals.
