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A spirit that is not afraid

Professor named Carnegie Fellow, awarded $200,000 for research

<p>Auburn University Professor Hanqin Tian</p>

Auburn University Professor Hanqin Tian

Auburn University professor Hanqin Tian was named a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and was awarded $200,000 for his research on how Asia can provide enough food for its citizens while limiting its environmental impact. 

"This is a great honor for our Auburn Family," Tian said. "It's one of many outstanding testaments of national and global recognition for Auburn's research.

Tian was one of 32 professors selected from over 300 nominees by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to be awarded grant money for research on pressing issues affecting the world. 

"Hanqin stands to make a tremendous impact on one of the greatest challenges facing our society — meeting the food demands of the global population in a sustainable way," said Auburn University President Steven Leath.

Tian is the Solon and Martha Dixon Endowed Professor and director of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. 

"I am deeply humbled and very grateful to be selected by the jury as an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and to join past recipients who I have long admired and respected," Tian said. "The Carnegie's fellowship provides me with an excellent opportunity to understand how growing population, urbanization and global-climate change will affect human well being and sustainable development, the greatest challenge facing the society and humanity in the 21st century." 

His work focuses on coupled human-earth system dynamics and bridging natural science, economics and social science. 

Tian's work has been featured in about 300 publications, including "Science" and "Nature." He has published in "Nature" in each of the past four years. 

His publication in 2016 revealed a groundbreaking discovery surrounding the net balance of the three major greenhouse gases. He found that human-induced emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from ecosystems overwhelmingly surpass the ability of land to soak carbon-dioxide emissions, contributing to climate change. 

"Hanqin is an exceptional scholar and is a Carnegie fellow," Leath said. "He has the potential to determine the implications of global trade on food supply and how technology can be better leveraged to alleviate the impact the food trade has on the environment."

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has made contributions to scholarly work for over 100 years. The 2019 contributions are centered around strengthening U.S. democracy and exploring new narratives, technological and cultural creativity, global connections and global ruptures in natural and human environments. 


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