Media & Policy

See below for list of articles, podcasts and other media that have covered our work, and policy engagement by members of our group.

Prof. Berhe spoke about the role of soils in climate change at the 2019 TED conference in Vancouver, Canada

A short video of Asmeret discussing our lab’s research, with appearances from multiple past and present members of the Berhe lab.

• [2021] Interviewed on BBC World Service’s The Conservation episode on Understanding the impact of climate change on women
• [2021] Interviewed for teen VOGUE article, The Dust Bowl Offers Key Climate Change Lessons for the U.S.
• [2021] Featured in the Association of Women in Science (AWIS) Magazine, Breaking the Color Barrier and Glass Ceiling in Academia
• [2021] NPR/WNYC interview and live call in radio program, The Brian Lehrer Show’s episode on The Climate Emergency
• [2021] Interviewed for Washington Post} article, Humanity’s greatest ally against climate change is Earth itself
• [2021] Featured in ABC News Earth Day coverage
  • Interview, video report: Meet some of the women who are fighting against climate change
  • Slideshow: Women on the front lines of climate science
• [2021] Interviewed for The Counter article on Regenerative agriculture needs a reckoning
• [2021] Article on the invited presentation I delivered at Colgate University. Published in The Colgagte-Maroon News, Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe on the Role of Soil in Climate Change
• [2021] Interviewed in BBC World Service’s The Climate Question podcast episode on Is it time to ditch the plough?
• [2021] Listed as one of the 15 Inspiring Women in Sustainability by Brightly
• [2021] Interviewed for article in Consumer Reports on A Lush Lawn Without Pesticides
• [2021] Featured in OpenMind BBVA article, Women Scientists in the Fight Against Climate Change
• [2021] Featured in TED Red Circle Speaker Spotlight (password protected site)
• [2021] Interviewed for AGU Eos article, Climate Change Uproots Global Agriculture
• [2021] Interviewed for Best Colleges article Achieving Diversity and Inclusion in College STEM
• [2020 – 2021] Media coverage for my Joanne Simpson Medal from the American Geophysical union
  • Eos, The American Geophysical Union
  • The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
  • UC Merced Press release
  • WIA Report: Tracking the Progress of Women in Academia
• [2020 – 2021] Featured in the six-part audio podcast series Life in the Soil (produced by Freien Universität Berlin)
• [2020] Media coverage for our paper, Ten Simple Rules for Building an Anti-racist Lab
  • National Public Radio (NPR), KQED and Morning Edition, Ten Simple Rules for Building an Anti-Racist Research Lab
  • Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), WTTW, ‘Ten Simple Rules’ to Make Science More Inclusive
  • The Chicago Tribune, How to build an anti-racist STEM lab: Tips from a DePaul University scientist
  • The College Fix
  • Eureka Alert
  • Phys.org
  • Newswise
  • DePaul University
  • The Science Advisory Board
  • Global Health News Wire
  • Lab Manager Magazine
  • Optics and Photonics News
  • The DePaulia
  • MEDILL Reports Chicago Podcast
• [2020] Featured in Forbes article, The Amazing Secret To Cutting 25\% Of Carbon Could Be Under Your Feet
• [2020] Featured in \textit{American Geophysical Union’s, EOS Raising Our Voices for Diversity in the Geosciences
• [2020] Featured in podcast, The Future of Meat Under our Feet by Food by Design: an IDEO Podcast
• [2020] Featured scientist in the children’s book, The Secret Lives of Scientists, Engineers, and Doctors – Volume 2 by Faisal Hossain. Published by Mascot Books.
• [2020] American Chemical Society’s Orbitals podcast, What If Half of Earth’s Soil Disappeared?
• [2020] Media coverage for my Carnegie Foundation honor of being inducted to the 2020 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans
  • Honoree Profile by Carnegie Corporation of New York
  • UC Merced Press Release Professor and Falasco Chair Berhe Recognized as a Carnegie Corporation Distinguished Immigrant
  • Merced Sun Star, UC Merced professor named Carnegie Corporation Distinguished Immigrant
  • Africans in America: Telling the story of native-born Africans living in the Americas, 2020 Great American Immigrants Awards | Eight Africans named among honorees by Carnegie \ Corporation of New York
• [2020] Interviewed for We Persist podcast, Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe: Soil biogeochemist studying climate change impacts and equity in STEM
• [2020] Interviewed for Huffington Post article, Is Your Grocery List Sustainable? We Asked Climate Experts How They Shop
• [2020] Interviewed for Diverse Issues in Higher Education’s article on, Achieving Diversity in STEM Faculty Requires Systemic Change, Says Report
• [2020] Interviewed for Prof. Kate Clancy’s The Courageous Scientists podcast, I would choose a healthy workplace climate over anything
• [2020] Interviewed for Daniel R. Mekonnen’s In 1000 Words, A chat with Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe}. In Tigrigna.
• [2020] Interviewed for AGU’s Third pod from the sun podcast, The Dirty Links between Soil and Climate
• [2020] Interviewed for Voice of America (VOA) program On the event of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, Reflections on COVID-19 and environmental change
• [2020] Featured Scientist, Throomers, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe on the Science of Soil}
  \item [2020] Featured Scientist
• [2020] Featured Scientist in Diversity in Action, Climate Change Warriors
• [2020] Interviewed for Gastropod podcast, To Fight Climate Change, Bank on Soil
• [2019] Interviewed for RadioBio podcast, International Education Week Stories
• [2019] Interviewed for BBC article on The animals that will survive climate change} 
• [2019] Interviewed for article on our  Guide for writing reference letters for people of color
  • Diversity in Research Jobs
  • People of Color in Higher Education
• [2019] Featured Scientist, Women Doing Science on Instagram
• [2019] Interviewed for Victoria Advocate’s story on Post-hurricane Harvey erosion along the Guadalupe River in Texas
• [2019] Media coverage for my TEDtalk on Soils and Climate Change, A Climate Change Solution that’s right under our feet
  • TED blog –Notes from Session 8: Mystery; Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas; TED blog — In Case You Missed It: Highlights from day 4 of TED2019; WIRED: The Plan to grab the world’s carbon with supercharged plants; Best Science News; UC Merced News; Sierra Sun Times; abc30 KFSN Fresno; Exchange Magazine; Daily Times, Pakistan
• [2019] Media coverage for our Fire Ecology paper on effect of the Rim Fire on dissolved organic matter chemistry in streams 
  • New Hampshire Union Leader; The Berlin Sun}; NIFA/US Department of Agriculture blog
• [2019] Media coverage for our California Strategic Growth Council grant on biochar use to reduce greenhouse gas fluxes from soil 
  • UC Merced News; Yourcentralvalley.com – KSEE24 (KSEE) and CBS47 (KGPE); FeedStuffs.com
• [2019] Media coverage for our Proceedings of National Academies of Science paper on how soil biodiversity changes during  soil development 
  • Austria Press Agency}; Universidad Rey  Juan Carlos, Spain; Science Daily, Virginia Tech news; UC Merced News
• [2018] Media coverage for our Nature Geoscience paper on soil carbon dynamics along the Merced Chronosequence
  • UC Merced Press Release; Phys.org coverage}; University of Vienna Press release; IDW scientific information service, University of Ausburg; Wiener Zietung
• [2018] THE STORY COLLIDER PRESENTS: STORIES FROM AGU. A Story Collider event, Washington DC. Thursday, December 13, 2018 at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Event info; Video and audio of the story
• [2018] Interviewed by Nature News for the article “Sexual harassment is rife in the sciences, finds landmark US study”
• [2018] Interviewed by Outside Megazine for the article “The Harassment Problem in Scientific Dream Jobs”
• [2018] Interviewed by Traverse Ranges for the Profile “Asmeret Asefaw Berhe”
• [2018] Featured Scientist, American Geophysical Union on Instagram
• [2017] Featured Guest, Voice of America Tigrigna Program “Interview with Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Professor at University of California, (Merced)”
• [2017] Media coverage of our new National Science Foundation award, NSF-ADVANCE Partnership award: From the Classroom to the Field: Improving the Workplace in the Geosciences.
  • Link to webpage with a list of several articles published on our ongoing project
• [2017] Featured #WCWinSTEM (Woman Crush Wednesday in STEM), #WCWinSTEM: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Ph.D. In Vanguard STEM, Vanguard: Conversations with Women of Color in STEM 
• \item [2017] Featured scientists, 500 Women Scientists. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe: “Staying in the Game”
• [2016] Featured Scientist, How a girl who loved learning became a top soil scientist. Sally Ride Science at University of California, San Diego
• [2016] Media coverage of our University of California President’s Research Catalyst Award, UC Consortium for Drought and Carbon Management.
  • UCR Today (University of California, Riverside); University of California, Merced; University of California, Berkeley; California Naturalist; Agriculture is America; UC ANR Green Blog; California Water News Daily
• [2015] Asmeret Asefaw Berhe iterview on Down on the Farm with Tom Willey on KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno, CA (July 3, 2015 to discuss Soils and Human Security)
• [2015] Media coverage of Science paper on Soils and Human Security in the 21st Century
  • The Independent UK, Newsweek, Girst, The Weather Network, International Business Times, All Africa, Times of India, Nature World News,  Science World Report, The Science Times, Phys.org, Innovation Toronto, Imperial Valley News, SciDev.Net, and others
• [2015] Asmeret Asefaw Berhe Spotlight at Identify with a Scientist. The PROGRESS (PROmoting Geoscience, Research, Education and SuccesS) Program. A partnership among five universities in the CO,WY Front Range (Colorado State University, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Wyoming, Colorado College, and Metro State University) and four universities in the Carolinas (University of North Carolina-Charlotte, University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, and University of North Carolina A\&T).
• [2014] Congressional visits to discuss federal funding for science with (Washington DC, May 7, 2014): 
  • Congressman James Manuel “Jim” Costa, U.S. Representative for California’s 16th congressional district; 
  • Congressman Gerald M. “Jerry” McNerney, U.S. Representative for California’s 9th congressional district; 
  • Congressional staff from the offices of Congressman John Raymond Garamendi (CA 3rd congressional district),
  • Congressman Tom McClintock (CA, 4th Congressional district), Denham (CA 10th congressional district),
  • David G. Valadao (CA 21st congressional district); and  \item – Senate staffers from the offices of Senator Diane Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer. 
• [2014] Media coverage of NSF CAREER award
  • The Merced Sun Star, The Sacramento Bee, and Valley Online News. And highlight by the University of California Office of the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program
• [2014] Highlight by the Hellman Family Foundation
  • Interview on successful project funded by Hellman Family Foundation’s grant for early career scientists in 2011 
• [2014] Asmeret Asefaw Berhe Highlight by the Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN) 
• [2009] New faculty profile, UC Merced Soil Scientist’s work keeps her grounded
• [2007] Media coverage of Bioscience paper on Role of Erosion on soil carbon sequestration
  • California Magazine, View from LBL, Science at Berkeley Lab, and Conservation Megazine
• [2007] US Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiative highlight of work on the role of soil erosion and terrestrial carbon sequestration