Geochemistry Professor Karen Johannesson elected as an AGU Fellow
UMass Boston Professor of Geochemistry Karen Johannesson has been named an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellow for her research in environmental geochemistry.
The Earth and space science association bestows this honor annually to a select number of individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of Earth and space sciences.
Since 1962, the AGU Union Fellows Committee has selected less than 0.1% of members as new fellows. AGU, a nonprofit organization that supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences, annually recognizes a select number of individuals as part of its Honors and Recognition program.
Johannesson said she was surprised to find out the news after many years of being an AGU member and celebrating friends who received the same recognition in the past.
“It feels good,” she said. “It’s a very small percentage of the group and it’s a huge organization so it’s quite an honor to become an AGU fellow.”
Johannesson’s work at UMass Boston focuses on chemical speciation and biogeochemical cycling of trace elements in the environment. She has worked extensively in groundwater flow systems over the years, and more recently in estuarine and coastal marine systems. She is particularly interested in how microbial processes influence the mobilization and transport of trace elements in environmental systems.
She studies these processes with her graduate students using innovative field studies, state-of-the-art analytical methods, and by constructing numerical models to simulate microbial respiration, chemical speciation, and transport of reactive solutes in environmental systems.
“I am delighted that the American Geophysical Union has chosen to honor Dr. Karen Johannesson as an elected fellow,” said School for the Environment Dean Carol Thornber. “This honor recognizes Dr. Johannesson's extensive scientific contributions and leadership, and brings recognition to her excellent work in the School for the Environment.”
In 2015, Johannesson was awarded the Geochemical Society’s Clair C. Patterson medal in recognition of her “…innovative breakthrough(s) of fundamental significance in environmental geochemistry…” related to her research on the aqueous geochemistry of lanthanide series elements in the environment. She became a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2010, the International Association of Geochemistry in 2014, and the Geochemical Society as well as the European Association of Geochemistry in 2015.
Since 2016, Johannesson has served as an editor-in-chief of the journal Chemical Geology. She has also served as an associate editor for the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta from 2005 until 2022 and was an associate editor for the American Mineralogist from 2014 until 2017.
She edited a book in 2005, Rare Earth Elements in Groundwater Flow Systems, which is the first volume of its kind that solely focuses on the geochemistry of the lanthanide series elements in groundwater and aquifer environments and has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 11 peer-reviewed book chapters.
Johannesson and the 2024 Class of Fellows will be formally recognized later this year at the 2024 Honors Ceremony held in Washington, DC, during the annual AGU meeting.