Prestigious Department of Energy program selects UB geology student studying plants’ response to drought

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Fiona Ellsworth, a PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo, has been selected by the Department of Energy to conduct research at a national laboratory on how drought changes the amount and type of carbon plants send to the soil.

Ellsworth is one of just 86 graduate students from across the U.S. chosen for the DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. She plans to begin her three-month stay at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, in June. 

“The Graduate Student Research program is a unique opportunity for graduate students to complete their PhD training with teams of world-class experts aiming to answer some of the most challenging problems in fundamental science,” said Harriet Kung, acting director of the DOE Office of Science. “Gaining access to cutting edge tools for scientific discovery at DOE national laboratories will be instrumental in preparing the next generation of scientific leaders.”

Ellsworth, a fourth-year PhD student and Presidential Scholar in the UB Department of Geology, researches what factors control carbon persistence in soil and how stressors, like drought or light limitation, impact the amount and type of carbon that roots send into the soil.

Under her adviser, Richard Marinos, PhD, assistant professor of geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, Ellsworth has performed laboratory and greenhouse experiments on plants and soil. This work results in better predictions of soil carbon cycling and ecosystem resilience under future climate conditions. 

Under the SCGSR program, Ellsworth will work with scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop methods for imaging plant root metabolites in the soil. She will also test the hypothesis that plants under drought send carbon to the soil via their entire fine root network, rather than just through their root tips, as they do under well-watered conditions. 

“I hope to advance my doctoral research through the SCGSR program, as well as connect with researchers at the forefront of their field, doing really exciting work at national labs,” Ellsworth said. 

Students accepted into the program research projects of significant importance to the Office of Science mission that address critical energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges at national and international scales.