David Frank, the new Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
David Frank, the newly appointed Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, kicked-off the fall semester and the start of his appointment at the University of Arizona in an address to the faculty, staff, students and visitors on August 25, 2016.
David Frank received Bachelors (1996) and Masters (1998) degrees in Geology from the State University of New York in Buffalo where he contributed to projects reconstructing the glacial and climatic history of coastal Alaska using tree rings. After his studies, he worked as a research assistant at the Tree-Ring Lab at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University producing data from tree ring sites collected across the globe. David Frank moved to Switzerland for his doctoral studies at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and the University of Bern (2005) reconstructing climate in central Europe and assessing the impacts of climate change on tree growth. After a post-doctoral appointment, he served as the head of the Palaeoclimatology and Dendroclimatology groups at the WSL (2006–2016). Prior to moving to Tucson, David was also a lecturer at the University of Bern and the ETH in Zurich, served as the advisor to graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, and was a co-organizer for dendrochronological fieldweeks. He is a well-cited author with over 100 peer reviewed publications that contribute to improving knowledge of the coupling between long-term environmental variation & tree growth.
Statement from the newly appointed LTRR Director
I am extremely honored to join the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and the University of Arizona, and I look forward to contribute to its long-standing and remarkable research, teaching and outreach success. The University of Arizona is the birthplace of the science of dendrochronology, and is the proud home of the new Bryant Bannister Tree-Ring Building. The array of excellent faculty, staff, students, and visitors make this the largest and preeminent center of tree-ring research worldwide. Even though I have been working with tree-ring data for about 20 years, I am still amazed how well dendrochronology can address topics ranging from understanding the history of ancient civilizations to the fate of terrestrial ecosystems. Even better is that we are continually discovering new research frontiers. The inter-disciplinary environment at the University of Arizona is a fantastic setting for the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, and I am thrilled to join this larger community.
—David Frank, August 25, 2016