ARS | Publication request: Foreword for Special Issue on Environmental Biophysics

Submitted to: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: October 15, 2009
Publication Date: December 4, 2009
Citation: Anderson, M.C., Twine, T., Black, A. 2009. Foreword for special issue on environmental biophysics. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 149:2061-2063.

Technical Abstract: This special issue on Environmental Biophysics is presented in honor of Dr. John Norman. Over the past four decades, Dr. Norman has dedicated himself to building bridges between disparate scientific disciplines for a better understanding and prediction of biophysical interactions. The consummate interdisciplinarian, John has always worked at the boundaries: between soil and plants, and between plants and the atmosphere – always striving for pragmatic modeling approaches that are “simple but not too simple”. His robust characterizations of the surface energy balance, radiative transfer, canopy architecture and light-use efficiency are routinely used in modeling systems developed by researchers around the world. John is also one of few remaining in the field to have successfully bridged the divide between theory and observation, an expert in both modeling and field measurement and instrument design. With this broad array of expertise and interests, John has built long-standing collaborations not only with academic colleagues in agriculture and meteorology, engineering, forestry, plant physiology, and ecology, but also with farmers, agricultural consultants, urban planners, and state environmental agencies. His recent efforts have been in the area of balancing agricultural productivity and environmental quality.