A University of Idaho associate professor in the College of Natural Resources has been selected for a Presidential Early Career Award for scientists and engineers.
Tara Hudiburg is the only recipient from a university in the state of Idaho. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for those who are at the beginning of their careers and show exceptional promise or leadership, according to a press release Thursday.
Tara Hudiburg | Courtesy
Hudiburg, who joined UI in 2014, was nominated by the National Science Foundation after being selected from recipients of the NSF award.
Hudiburg said she knew she had been nominated a few years back, but had to be approved by each division at NSF before being considered by the White House.
“I had basically given up that I was going to receive it,” Hudiburg said. “We did get FBI background checks requested by the White House Office of science and technology a few months ago, but again were told that we were still only being considered. But I really was surprised and extremely excited, honored and I haven’t stopped smiling.”
Hudiburg is a plant ecologist and carbon cycle scientist. Her lab, Idaho Terrestrial Ecosystem and Modeling, or ITEAM, studies how climate as well as human and natural disturbances affect terrestrial carbon, water and nutrient cycling.
“We use the knowledge gained to improve computer models that stimulate how changing climate and disturbance regimes, like fire, affect ecosystem processes like plant growth,” Hudiburg said.
Currently Hudiburg and other researchers in the ITEAM lab are investigating how drought and restoration thinning impact forest carbon and water cycling in Intermountain West forests such as Moscow Mountain. She also works alongside a large group of investigators with the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation on the implementation and sustainability of renewable energy.
Hudiburg will travel to Washington D.C. July 25 to accept the award.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell