Michael Stambaugh, an associate professor of forestry, was recently awarded the Charles Bullard Fellowship in Forest Research from Harvard Forest. Established in 1907, Harvard Forest is Harvard University’s 4,000-acre laboratory and classroom. According to the Harvard Forest website, “The purpose of this Fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making important contributions, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use and study of forested environments.”
While in residence at Harvard, Fellows interact with faculty and students, give seminars, participate in conferences and symposia and avail themselves of the University’s research resources. Stambaugh will spend his time at Harvard Forest completing a text describing environmental changes associated with changes in fire regimes across North America.
Stambaugh’s research primarily concerns changes in forest ecosystems, both in time and space. Stambaugh is interested in documenting past changes in forests as a means for understanding potential future scenarios. His research commonly utilizes tree-rings because they are excellent archives based on their ability to: span long time periods (millennia), be precisely dated, and provide information at a sub-annual resolution. Stambaugh supervises research conducted by the Center for Tree Ring Science.