Ruth Varner is a Professor of Biogeochemistry in the Department of Earth Sciences and the Earth Systems Research Center of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.
Her research is on trace gas emissions from terrestrial, aquatic and human-managed ecosystems. In her early career she focused on developing novel methods to measure very low-concentration, reactive halogenated trace gases. Over the past several decades she has established and maintained long-term measurements of methane emissions from wetlands and permafrost peatlands. She currently collaborates with microbial ecologists, remote sensing specialists, and modelers to address questions of scaling processes from regions to the globe. She integrates graduate and undergraduate students into her research and outreach. She has served as the Director of UNH’s Leitzel Center, where she developed and participated in professional development for K-12 STEM teachers. She has also served as the Director of the NSF REU Northern Ecosystems Research for Undergraduates program. She is currently the Director of the Collaborative Links to Ocean Science and Earth Science Graduate Academic Programs (CLOSES-GAP), an NSF GEOPATHS program collaborative with minority-serving institutions to broaden participation in the geosciences by engaging undergraduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups. She also co-directs the EMERGE Biological Integration Institute.