Asmeret and Teamrat were awarded a UC-HBCU award “Boosting Representation of African Americans in the Geosciences (BRAAG).” This three-year pathways grant will allow us to recruit 12 students in collaboration with HBCU partners from Kentucky State University, Tennessee State University, and Howard University for support of summer research experience, and recruitment for future graduate admission. … Read more
Asmeret argued for the need to center soils and equity in our efforts to address climate change In the July 20, 2020 issue of TIME.
SCIENCE ABROAD AND HOME: INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK STORIES Listen to the episode at the RadioBio websiteFor UC Merced’s International Education Week, this RadioBio episode includes interviews with five researchers on their unique experiences with international research: Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Dr. Felipe Zapata, Dr. Gregory Mutumi, Dr. Samuel Wasser, and Dr. Teamrat Ghezzehei. From soil … Read more
There’s two times more carbon in the earth’s soil than in all of its vegetation and the atmosphere — combined. Soil Biogeochemist Asmeret Asefaw Berhe shared how we could use its awesome carbon-trapping power to offset climate change. “[Soil] represents the difference between life and lifelessness in the earth system, and it can also help … Read more
It was an incredible honor to get invited to talk about soils and climate change at TED2019 conference in Vancouver. You can read about my talk from: The TED conference blog post The World Changing Ideas Section of the Fast Company “To fix the climate, we have to fix our soil” As if speaking about soil … Read more
Video of Asmeret’s talk is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLZ1qw8pzOs Asmeret was one of the speakers at a special Geosciences edition of The Story Collider that was held during AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall 2018 Annual meeting in Washington DC. This was an awesome talk that includes several other speakers: Carol Finn, Ryan Haupt, Sarah Kaplan, Janine … Read more
I am incredibly proud of Berhe lab grad students Kimber Moreland and Morgan Barnes for receiving DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program (SCGSR) fellowships that provide students with thesis research opportunities at Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories. The fellowships are designed to allow science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduate students to … Read more
Our team (Professors Gerardo Diaz, Teamrat Ghezzehei, Rebecca Ryals, YangQuan Chen, Catherine Keske and our very own Asmeret Asefaw Berhe received a $3 million grant from the California Strategic Growth Council to examine how biochar can be produced and used to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, namely methane. Our team will explore the feasibility of a mobile biochar unit through technology development and … Read more
We studied a 100s to 3 million yrs soil chronosequence preserved in alluvial terrace deposits of the Merced River, CA to unravel how soil mineralogy affects soil carbon storage and succeptibility to warming. This study was recently published in Nature Geoscience. Link to the article on Nature Geoscience website https://rdcu.be/2kvs See also the UC Merced Press … Read more
Asmeret is selected to serve as an inaugural member of the Academies’ newest initiative — New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (SEM). The New Voices in SEM “will engage in communicating the evidence base for addressing national and global challenges to provide new perspectives on issues of importance to the community represented by the … Read more