Dr. Stephen C. Hart

Stephen Hart is a terrestrial microbial and ecosystem ecologist who works at the interface between the biological and earth sciences. Currently, his research focuses on the ecological impacts of ecosystem restoration and climate change on forests and meadows of the Sierra Nevada.

He received his B.S. degree at the University of California, Berkeley in 1982 with majors in Forestry and Conservation of Natural Resources. He received his M.S. degree at Duke University in 1984 in Forest Ecology & Soils, and then returned to UC Berkeley and received his Ph.D. in 1990 in Soil Microbiology. Between 1989 and 1991, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Forest Biogeochemistry with the H.J. Andrews Long Term Ecosystem Research Site at Oregon State University. He then became a faculty member in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University (NAU) where he taught and conducted research in forest ecology and wildland soils for 17 years. In 2008, Hart left NAU to become Professor of Ecology in the School of Natural Sciences and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced (UCM), the first new American research university in the 21st century. During his tenure at UCM, he served as Chair of the Graduate Group in Environmental Systems and Chair of the Life & Environmental Sciences academic unit. He has served on the editorial board of a variety of scientific journals, including Biology & Fertility of Soils, Ecosystems, Forest Ecology & Management, Forests, and the Soil Science Society of America Journal (as associate and technical editor).

Dr. Hart has published well over 200 peer-reviewed, scientific publications on a wide variety of applied and basic research topics in the ecological/soil sciences, ranging from the effects of climatic change, forest management, and wildfire on soil systems, to the study of how individual plant genes can influence the composition and structure of soil microbial communities responsible for important ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. In 2011, Hart was elected as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America and in 2018 he was elected Fellow of the Ecological Society of America; these titles are the highest recognitions given by theseSocieties and are based on his professional achievements and meritorious service in these scientific fields. In 2021, Hart retired from the academic duties of his professorship and is currently a Research Professor in the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UCM.