I wanted to learn everything I could about carbon dioxide exchange. He conducted experiments in plant respiration in elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and earned his Ph.D. in botany from Duke in 1994. Within a month, the US Department of Energy recruited him for the Global Change Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Desert Research Institute. By that point, Griffin had established himself as a key player in the field of global climate change. Now, having completed his first semester as a professor at Columbia, Griffin admits that he finally feels like he's home.
Successful people are ones who have successful students.
I want the constant pressure to answer hard questions from smart students. He co-teaches an environmental biology course with Paul Olsen, who specializes in paleontology at Lamont. We all need the vitality that students bring to a laboratory and an institution. This winter, he's working on a study of Monterey Pine in New Zealand as well as continuing a project on plant respiration in elevated carbon dioxide environments with a biochemist in Nevada. We know that carbon dioxide is continuing to go up.