OAK RIDGE, Tenn., June 19, 2018—Colleen Iversen, a senior staff scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been selected for the New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine project launched by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Iversen, an ecosystem ecologist, works with root-soil interfaces to study how climate change alters belowground carbon and nutrient cycling. “While I study a tiny, hidden part of the world, I hope the New Voices program will increase the size of my story and help to make the tiny things mighty in the hearts and minds of the public,” Iversen said.
Through her interactions with the New Voices community, Iversen hopes to span the communication gaps between the scientific community and the broader public and explain how small bits of data from across the globe are fit together like puzzle pieces that faithfully represent the natural world.
Iversen joins an initial group of eighteen professionals recognized by the National Academies as early-career leaders. The New Voices cohort will collaborate over a two-year period with a senior advisory committee to discuss key emerging challenges in science, engineering, and medicine, engage nationally with a wider group of young leaders from diverse groups and attend international events on science policy.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://energy.gov/science/.
