John Melack

Institute Role
Member of Economics & Policy Solutions Group

Research
John Melack's research has emphasized ecological processes in lakes, wetlands, and streams, as well as hydrological and biogeochemical aspects of catchments. He leads a research program in limnology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, and remote sensing that has active studies in tropical Brazil, coastal catchments in California, and alpine and saline lakes in the Sierra Nevada. He conducted research in tropical Africa and has studied lakes, rivers, wetlands, and catchments in Australia, Japan, central Asia, and the southeastern United States. Current projects include ecological applications of synthetic aperture radar remote sensing, examination of carbon dynamics in tropical aquatic systems and greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs, water quality issues in coastal California streams and Sierra Nevada watersheds.

Biography
John Melack is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received a Ph.D. in Zoology from Duke University and an A.B. in Biology from Cornell University.Melack has served on the Independent Science Board and the Water Management Science Board for California Bay-Delta Authority’s CALFED Bay-Delta Program, the Science Steering Committee for the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia and represented the limnological community on NASA’s Science Steering Committee for the Earth Observing System. Melack played a seminal role in the establishment and development of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, which trains students to be professional environmental scientists; for five years he served as Acting or Associate Dean of the Bren School. He is an Associate Editor for Biogeochemistry and on the Editorial Board for Hydrobiologia and Biogeochemistry. During his career he has published over 250 scientific papers, edited three books and written numerous book reviews and technical, workshop and committee reports.