David Wolfe

David Wolfe is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His research interests focused on plant physiology and soil health, as well as climate change solutions for managed and natural ecosystems. Dr. Wolfe has been part of Cornell’s soil health leadership team since the early 1990s; from 2017 to 2021, he served as co-project leader for the state-funded New York Soil Health Program. Dr. Wolfe’s fieldwork has included several soil conservation and food security projects in East Africa.

In addition to his academic publications, Dr. Wolfe has shared his research with the general public throughout his career via media interviews and writing commentary for the popular press. He has also responded to policymaker requests, such as co-authoring the 2008 and 2014 National Climate Assessments sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and providing oral and written testimony at state and national government hearings. Dr. Wolfe is the author of Tales From the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life (2002), an award-winning popular science book on soil ecology that was translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.