Doak, Templeton awarded Distinguished Research Lectureships
The Research & Innovation Office (RIO) today announced that Dan DoakÌýof Environmental Studies and Alexis Templeton of Geological Sciences have been recognized withÌý2025-26 Distinguished Research Lectureships.
The Lectureship is among the most esteemed honors bestowed by the faculty upon a faculty member at ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ. Each year, theÌýÌýsolicits nominations from faculty for theÌýDistinguished Research Lectureship, and a faculty review panel recommends one faculty member as a recipient. Two faculty members were selected for the 2025—26 academic year.
Dan Doak (Environmental Studies)
Dan Doak
Dan Doak is a professor and the Byers Family Chair in the Department of Environmental Studies.
Doak received his PhD at the University of Washington and was a professor at both UC Santa Cruz and University of Wyoming before joining ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ in 2012.
His research features the development and use of new modeling methods to better understand ecological patterns and processes, and also field work that investigates the ecological dynamics of multiple plant and animal species. This research includes work on the conservation and management of endangered species, climate change impacts on wild species and communities, and basic research on species interactions and population dynamics.
In the first of these areas, Doak has worked to better understand the degree of endangerment and the most effective management methods for species including sea otters, island foxes, California condors, Mediterranean purple gorgonian corals and multiple rare plants.
His climate change research includes development of analysis and modeling methods, as well as a continuing, twenty-five-year study of arctic and alpine plants and their responses to climate across a wide latitudinal range in western North America.
Finally, he has worked with colleagues to better understand the ways that spatial patterns and changing contexts can shape ecological interactions. This area of work includes field studies of how termites create spatial structure in east African savanna and the ways that changing ecological context can mediate the impacts of sea otters on kelp forest communities.Ìý
Alexis Templeton (Geological Sciences)Ìý
Alexis Templeton
Alexis Templeton is a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and the CU Center for Astrobiology.
Templeton received her BA and MS in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College, followed by employment by the Department of Energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She then completed her PhD at Stanford University, examining how heavy metals can be transformed from toxic to non-toxic states at the surfaces of minerals and microbial organisms.
She completed her training as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, examining how microbial life thrives inside submarine volcanoes, before starting her professorship at ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ in 2005.Ìý She is an active member of the Geobiology program, and she teaches several courses in geochemistry, in the classroom and field-based settings in the mountains of Colorado.
Templeton’s research investigates how microbial life functions in the Earth’s subsurface environments, harnessing chemical energy produced as water flows and reacts through rocks.Ìý Her work has moved from volcanoes in the Pacific to cold springs in the High Arctic to the mountains and deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.Ìý Through funding from NASA, the Department of Energy, and the Grantham, Packard and Simons Foundations, she has led several large multi-disciplinary projects to investigate the subsurface biosphere on Earth and the potential for similar life forms to exist elsewhere in our solar system.
Currently, Templeton is developing projects around the world with academic, government and industry partners to harness hydrogen produced naturally by the Earth as a future clean energy source.Ìý
The lectures
Templeton's talk will be held on Thursday, Nov. 20, while Doak's lecture will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Details about the lectures will be shared inÌý¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ TodayÌýas they become available.