Jessica Green

Jessica Green

Fellow: Awarded 2013
Field of Study: Organismic Biology & Ecology

Competition: US & Canada

University of Oregon

A professor at both the University of Oregon and the Santa Fe Institute, Jessica Green is an engineer and ecologist who specializes in biodiversity theory and microbial systems.  She co-founded the Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center with Brendan Bohannan and G. Z. (Charlie) Brown, creating a team that bridges biology and architecture. Jessica envisions a future with genomic-driven approaches to architectural design that promote sustainability, human health, and well-being. She is spearheading efforts to model urban spaces as complex ecosystems that house trillions of diverse microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans, and with their environment. This framework uses next-generation sequencing technology to characterize the “built environment microbiome” and will contribute to design solutions that minimize the spread of infectious disease and maximize building energy efficiency.

Jessica is internationally recognized for over forty publications, including articles in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Her work has been featured in Time, Forbes, the LA Times, Scientific American, Discover, and on ABC, NBC, and NPR.  She has been honored with an AAUW Selected Professions fellowship, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral fellowship, and a TED Senior Fellowship.  She completed a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, and earned a M.S. and B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from UC Berkeley and UCLA, respectively.  

During her time as a Guggenheim Fellow, Jessica plans to work on two closely related efforts: (1) the development of microbial community assembly theory for urban environments and (2) the production of a graphic novel about the built environment microbiome, entitled Cities Unseen.

View Jessica Green: Are we filtering the wrong microbes?

Follow this link to watch Good germs make healthy buildings: Jessica Green at TEDxPortland

View "Talk Derby to Me: A documentary about microbes, roller derby and what it means to be human."

Follow this link to view "You are your microbes," a Ted-Ed video, with Jessica Green and Karen Guillemin

Learn more about the human microbiome – the collection of microbes living in and on our bodies.

 

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