Dr. Merritt Turetsky

Director of Arctic Security for the Center for National Security Initiatives University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Merritt Turetsky is the Director of Arctic Security for the Center for National Security Initiatives. She also is a Fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. Turetsky has more than 20 years of experience working in northern, high latitude ecosystems. Her work contributes to theoretical predictions of ecosystem structure and function, but it also applies to regulation of carbon in a global change world. She is passionate about northern ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Through her research and teaching, she hopes to train the next generation of scientists in the interdisciplinary skills required to tackle ongoing challenges in the north related to food and water security, energy sustainability, carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, and landscape change. Dr. Turetsky has provided leadership to the Permafrost Carbon Network, NASA's ABoVE campaign, and the Canadian Permafrost Network. She sits on the executive committees of several international research networks, was an AAAS Leshner Science Engagement Fellow, and a USC Wrigley Storymaker. She sits on the National Academies' Polar Research Board. She has been named a Web of Science/Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for the past four years. Her scientific publications can be viewed on her public Google Scholar page.