Photo by Mathew E Burciaga

Sophie Ruehr, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral researcher

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in landsurface modeling at the Max Planck-Caltech-Carnegie-Columbia MC3⁴ Earth Center, through which I am hosted by the Dukes and Rosa labs at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford. I received my Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. My work focuses on the biophysical effects of drought at ecosystem and landscape scales. Using near-surface and satellite remote sensing data, I’ve studied how groundwater drought affects carbon sequestration, the effectiveness of cutting-edge hyperspectral instruments to estimate primary productivity and water stress, and the benefits of sustainable management strategies on agricultural water-use efficiency. Having worked as a journalist and oral historian, I’m also interested in community perceptions of environmental change, especially when these differ from scientific findings.

Before starting at UC Berkeley, I lived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Vanuatu, a Pacific island nation where I collected oral histories about climate change. I’ve worked as a newspaper staff reporter and have written about seal population booms, water pollution, tenant farmers and illicit mushroom foragers. My work has appeared in the Provincetown Independent, InsideClimate News and the Provincetown Banner.

I graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Geology & Geophysics. I write songs for jazz guitar and regularly perform in the East Bay with my band.