Ashley Matheny, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Bio

Dr. Matheny completed her PhD in Civil Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2016 where she specialized in using custom, hand-made sensors to measure water flow rates in the wood of mature living trees in the forest. Today, Dr. Matheny focuses on understanding how different tree species around the world respond to stress and how those stress responses shape the water, carbon, and energy cycles locally and around the world. She uses her tree-water data to build physics-based numerical models of water transport within woody vegetation to improve simulations of how vegetation links the carbon and water cycles within regional and global climate models. At UT, Matheny has developed novel monitoring systems that combine measurements of vegetation performance and meteorological conditions, alongside new technology to monitor water content directly in trees and leaves to assess vegetation health, drought impacts, and forest fire risk. Her work has resulted in 44 peer-reviewed journal articles and 135 conference presentations, an Early Career Award from the American Meteorological Society’s section on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology “for leadership and excellence in the study of vegetation hydrodynamics and its role in the surface – atmosphere exchange of water,” and multiple funded grants through Exxon, the US Department of Energy, and NSF, including a prestigious NSF CAREER award.