Joost van Haren

A broadly trained earth scientist, Joost van Haren has researched topics from 40km deep in the earth’s crust (BSc Utrecht University and MSc Yale University) to soil-plant-atmosphere interactions (PhD University of Arizona). Joost came to Arizona in 1995 to run the analytical facilities at Biosphere 2. For his Ph.D., he investigated the influence of plant species on the production of greenhouse gases by soil bacteria in highly diverse tropical forests of Brazil. Currently, Joost is an assistant research professor at UofA’s Biosphere 2, where he investigates carbon uptake by weathering of basalt in the Landscape Evolution Observatory and drought effects on carbon cycling rates in the tropical rainforest. His teaching interest lies most with hands-on teaching programs, such as the tropical ecosystem field course in the Amazon basin and research experiences for high school and undergraduate students at Biosphere 2. He teaches an ecosystem cycling course to integrated science majors and a class exploring our human impact on planet Earth.