Jennifer Pett-Ridge was inducted into the Environment Category in 2025.
Jennifer is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and lead of the 'Carbon Initiative' at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, an adjunct professor at UC Merced, and an investigator at the University of California-Berkeley Innovative Genomics Institute. Trained in soil ecology and bio-geo-chemistry, she studies how plants and soil microorganisms interact, using stable isotopes as tracers, DNA and RNA analyses, and mathematical modeling. Her current research is largely focused on how to make soil carbon persist through sustainable agricultural innovation. Recently, she led a large team project for the US Department of Energy--called "Roads to Removal". It is a national analysis of the capacity and costs for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with data for every county in the USA. She is currently the lead of a new DOE Energy Earthshot Research Center called Terraforming Soil-her team is designing novel bio- and geo-engineering approaches to get carbon 'out of the air and back into the ground'. She has been recognized with the US Department of Energy Early Career award and Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and is a fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
