Mary Whelan
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Current Position
Fall 2019
Assistant Professor
Rutgers University

Education

PhD, Geography
Winter 2013
University of California, Berkeley
Terrestrial-Atmospheric Exchange of Reduced Sulfur Compounds in Natural Ecosystems

BA, Chemistry and Political Science
Spring 2004
New College of Florida
The honors college of the state university system

Appointments

NSF-AGS Postdoctoral Research Fellow
​2015-2017
Carnegie Institution for Science, Global Ecology
Stable Isotope Investigations of Soil Trace Gas Exchange
for Better Quantification of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes
Postdoctoral Scholar
2014-2015
Sierra Nevada Research Institute
Deciphering Urban and Natural Exchanges of Carbon
​in the San Francisco Bay Area
Researcher, Facilitator
2013-2015
NSF Geoscience Education Program 
Future Scientists Improving the Public’s Climate Literacy 
Graduate Student Instructor
2007-2013
University of California, Berkeley
Promoting Climate Literacy
​Global Warming
Introduction to Ocean Sciences
Introduction to Earth Science
World Regions, Peoples, and States
Graduate Student Researcher
2007-2013
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley Atmospheric Sustainability Laboratory

Research Interests

biosphere-atmosphere interactions
biogeochemical cycling of S, C, and water
gas phase atmospheric chemistry
novel approaches for estimating carbon uptake

publications

Whelan, ME, ST Lennartz, TE Gimeno, R Wehr, G Wohlfahrt, Y Wang, L Kooijmans, TW Hilton, S Belviso, P Peylin, R Commane, W Sun, H Chen, L Kuai, I Mammarella, K Maseyk, M Berkelhammer, K-F Li, D Yakir, A Zumkehr, Y Katayama, J Ogée,  FM Spielmann, F Kitz, B Rastogi, J Kesselmeier, J Marshall, K-M Erkkilä, L Wingate, LK Meredith, W He, R Bunk, T Launois, T Vesala, JA Schmidt, CG Fichot, U Seibt, S Saleska, ES Saltzman, SA Montzka, JA Berry, and JE Campbell: Reviews and Syntheses: Carbonyl Sulfide as a Multi-scale Tracer for Carbon and Water Cycles, Biogeosciences, 2018.  
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-3625-2018

Rastogi, B, M Berkelhammer, S Wharton, ME Whelan, FC Meinzer, D Noone, and CJ Still: Ecosystem fluxes of carbonyl sulfide in an old-growth forest: temporal dynamics and responses to diffuse radiation and heat waves, Biogeosciences, 2018.
https://www.biogeosciences.net/15/7127/2018/

Campbell, JE, J Kesselmeier, D Yakir, JA Berry, P Peylin, S Belviso, T Vesala, K Maseyk, U Seibt, H Chen, ME Whelan, TW Hilton, SA Montzka, MB Berkelhammer, ST Lennartz, L Kuai, G Wohlfahrt, Y Wang, NJ Blake, DR Blake, J Stinecipher, I Baker, and S Sitch: Assessing a New Clue to How Much Carbon Plants Take Up, EOS, 2018. 
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO075313

Meredith, L, K Boye, C Youngerman, ME Whelan, J Ogée, J Sauze, and L Wingate: Coupled Biological and Abiotic Mechanisms Driving Carbonyl Sulfide Production in Soils, Soil Systems, 2018.
https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems2030037

Meredith, LK, J Ogée, K Boye, E Singer, L Wingate, C von Sperber, A Sengupta, ME Whelan, E Pang, M Keiluweit, N Brüggemann, JA Berry, and PV Welander: Soil exchange rates of COS and CO18O differ with the diversity of microbial communities and their carbonic anhydrase enzymes, ISME Journal, 2018.
https://rdcu.be/baB7C

Zumkehr, A, TW Hilton, ME Whelan, S Smith, L Kuai, J Worden, JE Campbell, Global gridded anthropogenic emissions inventory of carbonyl sulfide, Atmospheric Environment, 2018.  

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.03.063

​Campbell, JE, ME Whelan, JA Berry, TW Hilton, A Zumkehr, J Stinecipher, Y Lu, A Kornfeld, U Seibt, TE Dawsome, SA Montzka: Coastal redwood sink of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide provides a new biogeochemical tracer for coastal fog-mediated processes, JGR-Biogeosciences, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JG003703
 
Hilton, TW, ME Whelan, A Zumkehr, S Kulkarni, JA Berry, I Baker, SA Montzka, C Sweeney, BR Miller, JE Campbell:  Peak growing season gross uptake of carbon in North America is largest in the Midwest, USA, Nature Climate Change, 2017.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3272 

Zumkehr, A, TW Hilton, ME Whelan, S Smith, JE Campbell: Gridded anthropogenic emissions inventory and atmospheric transport of carbonyl sulfide in the U.S., JGR-Atmospheres, 2017.

https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025550

Whelan, ME, Hilton, TW, Berry, JA, Berkelhammer, M, Desai, AR, Campbell, JE: Carbonyl sulfide exchange in soils for better estimates of ecosystem carbon uptake. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2016.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3711-2016

Whelan, ME, and Rhew, RC: Reduced sulfur trace gas exchange between a seasonally dry grassland and the atmosphere. Biogeochemistry, 2016.
https://rdcu.be/6gbH.

Campbell, JE, Whelan, ME, Seibt, U, Smith, SJ, Berry, JA, and Hilton, TW: Atmospheric carbonyl sulfide sources from anthropogenic activity: Implications for carbon cycle constraints. Geophysical Research Letters, 2015.

https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063445

Hilton, TW, Zumkehr, A, Kulkarni, S, Berry, J, Whelan, ME, Campbell, JE: Large variability in ecosystem models explains uncertainty in a critical parameter for quantifying GPP with carbonyl sulphide. Tellus B, 2015.
https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v67.26329

Whelan, ME, and Rhew, RC: Carbonyl sulfide produced by abiotic thermal and photo-degradation of soil organic matter from wheat field substrate, Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences, 2015.
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JG002661

Rhew, RC, Whelan, ME and Min, D-H: Large methyl halide emissions from south Texas salt marshes, Biogeosciences, 2014.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-6427-2014

Whelan, ME, Min, D-H and Rhew, RC: Salt marshes as a source of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide, Atmospheric Environment, 2013.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.02.048

Khan, MAH, Rhew, RC, Zhou, K and Whelan, ME: Halogen biogeochemistry of invasive perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium) in a peatland pasture, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2013.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrg.20020

Khan, MAH, Whelan, ME, and Rhew, RC: Analysis of low concentration reduced sulfur compounds (RSCs) in air: storage issues and measurement by gas chromatography with sulfur chemiluminescence detection, Talanta, 2012.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2011.11.038

Khan, MAH, Rhew, RC, Whelan, ME, Zhou, K and Deverel, SJ: Methyl halide and chloroform emissions from a subsiding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta island converted to rice fields, Atmospheric Environment, 2011. 
​https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.10.053

Honors and awards

Carnegie Postdoc Innovation Award
2017
NSF Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship
2015 - 2017
Janet Witter Award for Environmental Science Research
2013
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award         
2012
Martin Foundation Research Funding Award        
2012
UC Berkeley Graduate Division Summer Grant          
2012
Graduate Student Association Community Leader Award 
2010

Invited Seminars

USGS Rocky Mountain Research Science Seminar
Golden, CO
Three ways to evaluate how well we know the carbon cycle
Mar 2018
Carbonyl Sulfide Research Group Workshop                                 
Hyytiälä, Finland
Many paths to GPP estimates
Sep 2016
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory                                     
Biogeochemistry Seminar Series
New approaches to evaluate land carbon models
Sep 2016
Wayne State University
Department of Geology Seminar Series                                
Intertwining the fast C and S cycles
Apr 2016
Carnegie Institution for Science
Department of Plant Biology Round Table Seminar                     
Better estimates of ecosystem carbon uptake using 
measurements of COS exchange
Feb 2015
Carnegie Institution for Science
Department of Global Ecology Seminar                     
Soils, complexity, and ecosystem carbon exchange
Oct 2014
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Connecting C and S biogeochemical cycles: GPP,
mineralization in soil and rainfall events
Jun 2013

Synergistic Activities

Mentoring. Trained 12 undergraduate research assistants in laboratory-based and field-based gas analyses; advised 4 undergraduate students in the completion of their honors theses.

Community. Initialized and authored a comprehensive review paper for best practices applying the carbonyl sulfide tracer technique.  Organized an international organization of researchers to focusing on new approaches to measuring photosynthesis. Maintain community website (cosanova.org) and facilitate semi-annual meetings.

Peer Review. Review papers for PNAS, Frontiers in Ecology, Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (EGU), Biogeosciences (EGU), and Atmospheric Environment.

Public educational institutions. Subject specialist for NSF-sponsored Promoting Climate Literacy Project with the Lawrence Hall of Science; developed course curriculum to teach climate change outreach to informal audiences by undergraduate and graduate students

University educational outreach. Delivered physical science-focused guest lectures in 4 social sciences courses to promote cross-discipline dialogue; graduate student instructor for 5 courses

Teaching experience

As Instructor
Promoting Climate Literacy
As Teaching Assistant
​Introduction to Earth Science
Introduction to Oceans
World Regions, Peoples, and States
Global Warming
As Guest Lecturer
Ecophysiology and Land Surface Processes (Stanford)
California Landscapes
Gender and Climate Change
The Ocean World

Software Development Experience

​Languages: Python (numpy/scipy), Matlab
Modeling: WRF, STILT, ESMF (ESMPy regridding)
Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Linux

FieldWORK Experience

Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil: INPE, 2018-continuing
Installation and calibration of laser spectrometer; method development for programmable flask sampling for flights over the Amazon, in collaboration with Joe Berry of the Carnegie Institution, Elliott Campbell of UC Santa Cruz, Luciana Gatti of INPE, and John Miller of NOAA.

Boulder Creek, CA: Big Basin State Park, 2016-continuing
Design and construction of instrument platform, installed 65 m up at the top of redwood tree, for continuous observation of OCS, CO, and CO2.  Soil, litter, and lichen collection and incubation.
​​
Urbana, IL: Bondville FLUXNET site, 2015-2016
Deployment of re-designed soil auto-sampling chambers to assess agricultural soil COS fluxes in situ, supported by lab incubation experiments, in collaboration with Max Berkelhammer at the University of Illinois Chicago.
 
Big Sur, CA: Big Creek UC Reserve, 2015-2016
Design and construction of “Trees-not-Towers” gas sampling device, diurnal observation of trace gases from different canopy heights in a coastal redwood forest in collaboration with Todd Dawson of University of California, Berkeley and Elliott Campbell, current advisor
 
Wind River, WA: Wind River Experimental Forest, 2015
Re-design of Li-Cor autosampling chambers for COS soil sampling, continuous surface COS fluxes in old growth forest, in collaboration with Chris Still and Bharat Rastogi of Oregon State University
 
Santa Cruz, CA: Wilder Ranch State Park, 2012-2014
Conducted monthly trace gas sampling campaigns on marine terraces in collaboration with USGS scientist Marjorie Schulz
 
Puerto Rico: Luquillo Experimental Forest, 2010
Design and construction of chemically inert chambers for reduced sulfur compound sampling, in situ rainforest soil trace gas measurements with Whendee Silver of University of California, Berkeley
 
Sacramento Bay Delta, CA: Sherman Island, 2009-2010
Conduct year-long monthly field campaign with 4 research assistants, chamber sampling halogenated compounds using isotope tracer technique
 
Port Aransas, TX: Mollie Beattie Coastal Habitat, 2008-2009
Wetland sampling of sulfur and halogenated compounds with Dong-Ha Min of the University of Texas at Austin
 
Manhattan, KS: Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research Station, 2007
Diurnal sampling of halogenated gases using chamber technique
 
Barrow, AK: Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, 2007
Construction and deployment of ebullition chambers, high frequency chamber sampling of methane with laser technique, coastal permafrost erosion methane sampling with Joe von Fischer of Colorado State University
 
Gulf of Mexico: Mote Marine Laboratory, 2005-2006
Deep and surface water sampling, trace element sampling (e.g. Fe), in situ sample prep, boat piloting/trailering in inter-coastal waters

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1433257.  
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 
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