Profile of Dr. Alan Townsend

University of Colorado
INSTAAR CB 450
Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: (303) 492-6865
alan.townsend@colorado.edu

Current position: Associate Professor, University of Colorado, Boulder

Education: Ph.D. Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1994

Dr. Alan Townsend studies how terrestrial ecosystems respond to and affect human-induced environmental change. Much of his lab group’s research focuses on controls over nutrient limitation and carbon storage in moist tropical and alpine tundra ecosystems, and how these controls help us understand the response of such systems to human-induced environmental change. He also studies the effects of a rapidly changing nitrogen cycle on human health; such effects can include air and water pollution, changes in food supply, and shifts in the ecology of disease. Dr. Townsend currently serves as the Director of the North American Nitrogen Center, one of six regional centers that comprise the International Nitrogen Initiative, and he is the Associate Director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. He has served on numerous national and international committees and programs.