Abigail Swann

Abigail L. S. Swann is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Ecology at the University of Washington. Her research group focuses on questions that examine the interactions between plants and climate.

Early life and education
Swann grew up in Glen Ellen, CA and now resides in Seattle, WA. She received her bachelor's degree in earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. She then attended Columbia University for her master's degree in earth and environmental sciences. She returned to the University of California, Berkeley to complete her Ph.D. Her thesis advisor was Inez Fung.

She was also a competitive youth and collegiate sailor, winning the US Sailing Junior Women's Doublehanded Championship (Ida Lewis Trophy) and the collegiate sailing Robert Hobbes Sportsmanship Award.

Career and research
Swann is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science and Ecology at the University of Washington. She uses climate models to simulate the way that plants influence Earth's climate. She has made a number of discoveries about how changes in the biosphere may influence our climate. For example, she predicts that the addition of deciduous forests in the Arctic may cause warming both by reducing the amount of area covered by reflective ice and by increasing the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. While additional forests in mid latitudes across North America and Eurasia, may influence forests as far away as the tropics. Her group also examines how plants adapt to shifts in climate. For example, she found that plants use less water as CO2 increases, decreasing the severity of drought response and thus changing the way climate models should be built. Her findings on the influence of plants on the environment have been reported by Quanta magazine, Geographical Magazine, Inside Science, and multiple UW news publications.

Swann serves as a co-chair of the Biogeochemistry Working Group, Community Earth System Model, and National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Awards and honors

 * American Geophysical Union Global Environmental Change Early Career Award, 2019
 * Ecological Society of America Early Career Fellow, 2019
 * Science News 10 Scientists to Watch, 2019
 * Jon C. Graff, Ph.D. Prize for Excellence in Science Communications, 2019
 * Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, 2018
 * National Science Foundation CAREER Faculty Early Career Development Award, 2016
 * DISCCRS VI Scholar, 2011
 * Giorgio Ruffolo Post-Doctoral fellow in Sustainability Science, 2010