Member of the Graduate Faculty | Associate Professor, Microbial Biogeochemistry
Dr. Joseph "Joey" Blankinship is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science at the University of Arizona, beginning there in January 2017. Joey grew up in the clayey soils near Richmond, Virginia, and earned his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences in 2002 from the University of Virginia. He then headed west, earning his PhD in Biology in 2009 from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, followed by two postdoctoral research positions at University of California Merced and Santa Barbara. The Blankinship Microbial Biogeochemistry Group investigates the roles of soil microorganisms in controlling ecosystem services, including their glues that help prevent wind and water erosion, their extracellular enzymes that unlock plant nutrients, their residues that sequester carbon, and their metabolic activities that produce and consume atmospheric greenhouse gases. We work across biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering to find ways to improve soil and plant health, restore ecosystem functions, and sustain desert agriculture.