Natalie Mahowald

Natalie Mahowald is the Irving Porter Church Professor in Engineering at Cornell University's College of Engineering, with appointments in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She holds a BS in Engineering Physics and German from Washington University, an MS in Natural Resource Policy from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Meteorology from MIT. Her research focuses on earth system feedbacks impacting climate change, including atmospheric transport of biogeochemical species and carbon cycle analysis through global climate models and satellite data.

Her research examines feedbacks in the earth system affecting climate change, using 3D global transport models combined with satellite and field data analysis. Key interests include desert dust transport, aerosol impacts on marine microorganisms, and land-use effects on warming. She has pioneered work on atmospheric iron processing mechanisms and anthropogenic combustion iron as a complex climate forcer.

Mahowald has authored over 100 publications focusing on aerosol deposition impacts, dust radiative forcing, and climate policy implications. Her work consistently demonstrates how atmospheric processing affects marine biogeochemistry and terrestrial carbon cycles.

She has received numerous honors including AAAS Fellowship (2020), AGU Fellowship (2013), and the AMS Syukuro Manabe Climate Research Award. She served as lead author for the 2018 UN IPCC Report and was named a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher.

Mahowald directs research on global dust cycles and volcanic ash impacts, with NASA-funded projects examining plant pathogen transport via dust. She leads interdisciplinary teams studying aerosol nutrient fluxes and maintains collaborations through Cornell's Atkinson Center for Sustainability.