Environmental Sciences Division, ORNL
Biography
Dr. Virginia H. Dale is a Corporate Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where she serves as Director of the Center for BioEnergy Sustainability. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee and in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and has a joint appointment with the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education at the University of Tennessee. She obtained her PhD in Mathematical Ecology from the University of Washington. Her primary research interests are environmental decision making, plant succession, land-use change, landscape ecology, ecological modeling, sustainability, and bioenergy systems. Virginia has authored 10 books and more than 240 published articles. She has served on national scientific advisory boards for five agencies of the United States and several committees of the National Academies of Science. She was among the members of the international science community that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Scientific Assessment that in 2007 received with Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize. She was recognized by the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist award by the United States Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology in 2013.