Bala Chaudhary, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. She is a National Science Foundation CAREER Awardee and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Continent Scale Biology.
Research in her lab focuses on plant-fungal symbioses (mycorrhizas), continent-scale ecology (macroecology) and microbial dispersal (movement).
She uses trait-based approaches to develop predictive frameworks for mycorrhizal dispersal, community assembly and biogeography, and employs complementary approaches of macroecological field work, controlled lab experiments and data synthesis to study multi-scale questions in ecology.
Her work spans dozens of ecosystem types and has applications in global change solutions including climate mitigation and adaptation, soil conservation, ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture. Prior to academia, Chaudhary worked as an environmental consultant in Los Angeles designing and restoring drastically disturbed urban areas to create habitat for endangered species.
She received the Early Career Motivator Award by the Association for Women in Science and the Woman of Spirit and Action Award for her work on promoting antiracism in STEM.
