Rate My Professor Emily Bernhardt

Emily S. Bernhardt is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Biology and Chair of the Department of Biology at Duke University. As an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist, her research principally concerns tracking the movement of elements through ecological systems. She examines how the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems are altered by land use changes including urbanization, agriculture, and mining; global changes such as rising CO₂ and sea levels; and chemical pollution. Her work aims to determine if and how these ecosystem changes can be mitigated or prevented through active management. Bernhardt earned a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University in 2001. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences in 2001-2002 and at the University of Maryland's Departments of Entomology and Biology in 2002-2004.

Bernhardt joined Duke University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology in 2004, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and Professor in 2016, and appointed James B. Duke Distinguished Professor in 2019. She also holds a secondary appointment in the Division of Environmental Science and Policy in the Nicholas School of the Environment since 2005 and has served as Chair of the Biology Department since 2020. Her scholarly contributions include co-authoring the textbook Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change, third edition (2013) with W.H. Schlesinger. Key publications encompass 'Mountaintop Removal Mining Consequences' in Science (2010), 'Cumulative Impacts of Mountaintop Mining on an Appalachian Watershed' in PNAS (2011), 'River Restoration in the United States: A National Synthesis' in Science (2005), and 'River Ecosystem Metabolism and Carbon Biogeochemistry in a Changing World' in Nature (2023). Bernhardt has received the National Academy of Sciences election (2023), NSF CAREER Award (2005), H.G. Hynes Award (2004), Yentsch-Schindler Early Career Award (2013), Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award (2015), Leopold Leadership Fellowship (2015), and Mercer Award (2015). She serves on editorial boards for JGR: Biogeosciences and PeerJ, and has held numerous leadership roles in organizations such as the Ecological Society of America, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, and National Ecological Observatory Network committees. Through the Bernhardt Lab, she advances aquaterrestrial biogeochemistry research across forests, wetlands, streams, and urbanizing landscapes.