Rate My Professor Justin Mathias

Justin Mathias, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Biology at West Virginia University, appointed in December 2023. A proud alumnus of WVU, he completed his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2013 and his Doctor of Philosophy in Biology in 2020, with his dissertation advised by Professor Richard B. Thomas. His graduate research linked reductions in acidic air pollution under the Clean Air Act to the recovery of red spruce forests in the Central Appalachians. Post-graduation, Dr. Mathias held postdoctoral positions first at the University of California, Santa Barbara under Dr. Anna Trugman, where he explored functional trait assemblages and ecosystem vulnerability to climate extremes using modeling, and then at the University of Idaho with Dr. Tara Hudiburg, examining policy and environmental influences on forest biogeochemistry.

The Mathias Lab at WVU focuses on how global environmental changes—such as altered atmospheric chemistry, climate shifts, and disturbances like wildfires—affect ecosystem biogeochemistry and plant physiology. Key research themes include legacy effects of nitrogen deposition on forest carbon and nutrient cycling, tree-ring records of historical nitrogen dynamics, wildfire impacts on ecophysiology, and soil carbon under farm management. Dr. Mathias integrates stable isotope analysis, field experiments, and process-based models to improve predictions of carbon cycling. His scholarship has appeared in premier outlets: "Global tree intrinsic water use efficiency is enhanced by increased atmospheric CO2 and modulated by climate and plant functional types" (PNAS, 2021, 189 citations); "Disentangling the effects of acidic air pollution, atmospheric CO2, and climate change on recent growth of red spruce trees" (Global Change Biology, 2018, 97 citations); "Terrestrial carbon dynamics in an era of increasing wildfire" (Nature Climate Change, 2023, 53 citations); "Climate change impacts plant carbon balance, increasing mean future carbon use efficiency but decreasing total forest extent at dry range edges" (Ecology Letters, 2022, 36 citations); and "isocalcR: An R package to streamline and standardize stable isotope calculations in ecological research" (Global Change Biology, 2022, 34 citations). Recognized for excellence, he earned the Elizabeth Sulzman Award for best graduate publication from the Ecological Society of America Biogeosciences section in 2018 and the W.D. and S.M. Billings Award from the Physiological Ecology Section in 2019. With 437 citations on Google Scholar, his work informs forest responses to climate change and atmospheric recovery. Dr. Mathias teaches global change ecology, biogeochemistry, and biometry, and actively mentors graduate students.