Jeff Amthor is a plant ecophysiologist interested in the fundamental biochemical and biophysical limits to primary production in terrestrial ecosystems, with particular focus on crop yield.  He pays special attention to plant respiration and has expertise in mechanistic modeling of plant photosynthesis, growth, and development.  Much of his computer simulation modeling and experimental research addresses plant physiological responses to changes in climate and atmospheric composition (increasing CO2 concentration and tropospheric  O3 pollution) and how those plant responses can affect the carbon and water balances of terrestrial ecosystems.

Schooling

Jeff earned an MS in agronomy from Texas A&M University (1979-1980).  Then  a PhD in plant physiological ecology from Yale University (1981-1987) with supervision from Herb Bormann and Bill Reifsnyder (the meteorologist, not the long-distance runner).  The experimental components of his PhD dissertation research (1985-1986) — conducted at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University with supervision by Leonard Weinstein — quantified effects of O3 concentration on Phaseolus vulgaris leaf respiration.  While enrolled in the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Jeff also for a few years (1984-1986) was User Consultant and Technical Support Specialist at the Yale Computer Center (YCC).  At the YCC he joyfully spent hours each day immersed in IBM Job Control Language (JCL) and programming bugs (and got paid for it!).