Lawren Sack

Lawren Sack is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. His research focuses on plant functional traits, drought tolerance mechanisms, and ecosystem responses to climate change. He leads a lab exploring plant physiology across scales—from molecular to ecosystem levels—with an emphasis on leaf and whole-plant hydraulics, evolutionary trait diversity, and conservation applications. Current projects include studying how plant species survive drought in Southern California and predicting species' climate niches using mechanistic traits.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering
• Ph.D. in Environment and Sustainability

Research Interests: Plant hydraulic traits, stomatal regulation, ecohydrology, invasive species impacts, and scaling plant physiology to ecosystem processes. His work bridges evolutionary biology with applied conservation, particularly for California native oaks and tropical forest resilience.

Recent Work Trends: Recent publications emphasize drought tolerance mechanisms, trait-based climate modeling, and ecosystem hydraulic scaling. He explores how leaf and root trait networks influence community assembly and ecosystem productivity under climate change, with a focus on aridity gradients and invasive species dynamics.

Awards:

• Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award

Advising & Grants: Supervises students like Nidhi Vinod (Ph.D. candidate) researching ecosystem responses to climate change. Active in collaborative grants on scaling plant traits to forest fluxes and conservation physiology solutions.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Sack Lab at UCLA, collaborating with global networks such as ForestGEO and GRooT database initiatives. Engages in interdisciplinary projects linking physiology to macroecology and climate policy.