Sarah Davis

Dr. Sarah Davis is an ecosystem ecologist with expertise in energy bioscience, biogeochemistry and eco-physiology. She researches system-level energy conversion efficiency, carbon sequestration, and greenhouse gas fluxes in managed landscapes using experimental and modeling approaches. Her work on bioenergy includes assessments of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) in agricultural plants for semi-arid regions, advanced bioenergy grasses, and integrated systems designs that include anaerobic digestion. She also researches carbon cycling in managed forests and feedbacks between terrestrial ecosystem dynamics and climate. Davis received her PhD in Biology from West Virginia University in 2007 where she studied the long-term response of forest carbon sequestration to common harvesting practices. She continued her study of forest carbon balances and began researching bioenergy agro-ecosystems while in a post-doctoral position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and was then appointed in 2010 as a Bioenergy Analyst for the Energy Biosciences Institute, an interdisciplinary research program at UC Berkeley and UIUC. Dr. Davis joined the Voinovich School at Ohio University in 2013 and continues to contribute to the new field of energy bioscience by exploring opportunities for bioenergy development that will simultaneously enhance ecosystem services and stimulate rural economies.

Dr. Davis currently teaches courses in Ecology and Environmental Issues, Bioenergy, Environmental Science and Policy Literacy, Environmental Leadership and Civil Discourse.