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Maegen B. Simmonds

Project Scientist

Building 084, Room 0103B

M/S 74R316C

Phone: 707-694-6079

[email protected]

Curriculum Vitae

  • Researcher ID
  • Google Scholar
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Grants, Fellowships & Awards

Biography

Maegen Simmonds is a soil and ecosystem biogeochemist, modeler, and data scientist who works to ensure the long-term sustainability of ecosystems by informing best management practices, decision-making, and policy. Her research focuses on terrestrial ecosystem processes, including land-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O). Predicting the interactive effects of climate, wildfire, soil and plant properties, and land management have been central themes in her work. Currently her research focuses on developing the California Natural and Working Lands Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Model (CALAND), which simulates the net changes in California’s land carbon stocks under various suites of land use and land management interventions interacting with environmental changes (urbanization, wildfire, climate change). The primary goal of this project is to inform the State of California’s land management goals and greenhouse gas reduction targets in California’s 2030 Natural and Working Lands Climate Change Implementation Plan. She will expand on this work through a recently awarded multi-institutional grant from the California Strategic Growth Council. Her role in this project involves developing models to scale up experimental field trial data on changes in soil carbon in agricultural systems due to additions of biochar, compost, and rock across temporal and spatial scales in California.

Dr. Simmonds studied sustainable development (B.A.) at The Pennsylvania State University before receiving her doctorate in soils and biogeochemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 2014. She spent two years at Stanford University as a postdoctoral scholar, where she designed an experiment inspired by her curiosity in mechanisms of carbon stabilization in soil organic matter, particularly the role of oxygen limitation in soil microbial respiration. Specifically, she tested the temperature sensitivity of anaerobic microbial respiration and its dependence on crop residue inputs in a greenhouse soil incubation experiment. For her dissertation she examined the potential for precision management in rice cropping systems through on-farm field studies and using machine learning techniques to explain the underlying causes of spatiotemporal variability of rice yield. She also conducted field experiments and used process-based modeling to explore crop, soil, and water management effects on methane and nitrous oxide emissions from rice soils. Later her model calibration and validation work directly supported the quantification of statewide methane emissions from rice cultivation in the California Air Resources Board greenhouse gas inventory. In addition to research, she has a passion for teaching and developing curriculum and software for a range of subjects including general soil science, soil nutrient management, climate change mitigation, experimental design, and statistics.

Publications

  • Researcher ID
  • Google Scholar

Education

  • Ph.D., Soils and Biogeochemistry, University of California, Davis, 2014
  • B.A., Letters, Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 2003

Experience

  • Geological Project Scientist, Earth & Environmental Sciences Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2018-Present
  • Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University, California, 2016-2018
  • Consultant, International Programs of CA&ES, University of California, Davis, 2015-2016
  • Graduate Student Researcher, University of California, Davis, 2008-2014

Grants, Fellowships & Awards

  • California Collaborative on Climate Change Solutions: Working Lands Innovation Center—Catalyzing Negative Carbon Emissions, California Strategic Growth Council (Co-Modeling Lead and Co-Author), 2019-2022
  • Shapiro Family Award for Excellence in Science for quality of dissertation and outstanding academic and research record, 2015
  • UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences Graduate Researcher Fellowship, 2010-2014
  • Full scholarship to Rice Research to Production Course, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, funded by NSF, 2013
  • William G. and Kathleen Golden International Agriculture Fellowship, 2008-2012
  • UC Davis & Humanities Graduate Research Award, 2009-2011
  • Ben A. Madson Scholarship, UC Davis, 2009-2010
  • Dr. Marlin Brandon Rice Research Fellowship, UC Davis, 2009
  • Henry A. Jastro Graduate Research Award, UC Davis, 2009
  • Block Grant, Soils and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group, UC Davis, 2008
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