Dr. Alan Townsend is an ecologist and professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his bachelorÍs degree in 1988 from Amherst College, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in 1994. Alan co-directed CU-BoulderÍs Carbon, Climate and Society Initiative, has authored a newspaper column on global environmental change, and has served on numerous national and international committees and programs, including the SCOPE Nitrogen Program, the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI), the Ecological Society of America's (ESA) Visions Committee, and the Science Advisory Board for the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. He is currently the Associate Director of CU-BoulderÍs Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Director of the INIÍs North American Nitrogen Center, and serves on ESAÍs Rapid Response Team, a group that provides environmental information to policy-makers. He and his lab group study how terrestrial ecosystems respond to and affect several aspects of human-induced environmental change. Further information is available at: http://ibl.colorado.edu