DURHAM, N.C. – Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas Professor of Global Environmental Change at 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and professor of biology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

AGU is an international scientific association with more than 50,000 members. Its mission is to advance the scientific understanding of Earth and space for the benefit of humanity. Being elected a Fellow is one of the highest professional honors bestowed by the AGU. Each year, fewer than 0.1 percent of its members are selected by a committee of their peers for the honor.

An internationally cited expert on how people affect the Earth, Jackson’s research includes studies of the global carbon and water cycles, biosphere and atmosphere interactions, and global change.

In addition to serving as director of Duke’s Center on Global Change, he directs the university’s Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. He also heads the U.S. Department of Energy-funded National Institute for Climate Change Research for the southeastern U.S., and co-directs the Climate Change Policy Partnership, working with energy and utility corporations to find practical strategies to combat climate change.

Jackson has received numerous awards, including the Murray F. Buell Award from the Ecological Society of America; a 1999 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering from the National Science Foundation, for which he was one of 19 scientists honored at the White House by President Bill Clinton; and inclusion in the top 0.5% of most cited scientific researchers by the international research database “ISI Highly Cited, which is online at .

He has more than 125 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is co-editor of the book Methods in Ecosystem Science, published by Springer Press in 2000. His trade book on global change, The Earth Remains Forever, was published in 2002. His first children's book, Animal Mischief, was published in 2006 by Boyds Mills Press, the trade arm of Highlights Magazine for children. The sequel, Not Again, is due out next year.

Jackson received a Bachelor of Science 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû in chemical engineering from Rice University in 1983. He worked four years at Dow Chemical Co. before obtaining Master of Science 91ÉçÇø¸£Àûs in ecology and statistics from Utah State University in 1990 and 1992 respectively, and a PhD in ecology from Utah State, also in 1992.

He will be inducted as an AGA Fellow in a ceremony at the AGU Joint Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in May.