Todd Dawson is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the Dawson Lab. His research efforts focus on “the interface between plants and their environment.” Dawson Lab projects “pay special attention to how aspects of plant form and function combine to permit adaptation to environmental variation, and how plants and their unique traits influence the structure and function of the communities and ecosystems they compose.” Dr. Dawson received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1987. He served as a member of the NEON Chief of Science Search Committee.