Jennifer Tank
Jennifer L. Tank is an American ecologist who is the Galla Professor of Ecology of Streams and Rivers at the University of Notre Dame. Her research considers the biogeochemistry of streams, the influence of agriculture on land conservation, stream restoration and stream transport. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020. Early life and education. Tank was raised beside the shores of the Great Lakes. Her parents were biology teachers. She was an undergraduate student at Michigan State University, where she studied zoology. She earned her master's and doctoral degree  at Virginia Tech, where she switched focus to ecology. Her master's research considered microbial respiration on decaying leaves and sticks in a Appalachian stream. Her doctoral research involved investigations into the microbial activity of wood biofilms in streams. Tank was a postdoctoral researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Research and career. In 1998 Tank was made an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She joined the University of Notre Dame in 2000, where she was made Assistant, Associate and eventually full Professor. She was elected Director of the Notre Dame Environmental  Change Initiative in 2016. As part of her leadership, Tank is responsible for the Indiana Watershed Initiative, which explores how conservation practises serve to protect freshwater. She was elected President of the Society for Freshwater Science in 2017.