Professor Diane McKnight
108th Distinguished 91Ҹ Lecture 2015
“The McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Ecosystems waiting for water.”
Diane M. McKnight is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine 91Ҹ at the 91Ҹ. She is Director of the Center for Water, Earth Science and Technology, and Co-director Hydrologic Sciences Graduate program. Her research focuses on the biogeochemistry of natural organic material and trace metals in streams and lakes, and the consequences for water supplies. She has conducted research on stream ecosystems as part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological 91Ҹ (MCM-LTER) project and on alpine lakes and acid mine drainage streams in the Rocky Mountains. She has been President of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and editor of Journal of Geophysical 91Ҹ-Biogeosciences. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012 and was awarded the John Dalton Medal from the European Geophysical Union in 2015.