Director, Biosphere

Position Highlights

The Director of Biosphere 2 is a proven global leader who provides executive, scientific, and strategic leadership for the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 facility, the world’s largest controlled Earth‑systems science laboratory encompassing integrated biomes including the iconic tropical rainforest, ocean, desert, and savanna. The Director advances Biosphere 2 as a globally recognized center for interdisciplinary research, immersive education, public engagement, and mission‑aligned visitor and retreat experiences in support of the University’s research mission and land‑grant responsibilities.

A central responsibility and focus of the Director will be to grow the extramural grant‑funded portfolio of the Biosphere 2 and to elevate its scientific standing and international reputation. The Director, in consultation with U of A faculty and external national and international leading scientists, will drive the development of a new scientific strategy for the Biosphere 2 that will help meet these goals over the short to mid‑term.

The Director holds a faculty appointment with associated research and teaching responsibilities and exercises broad authority and independent judgment in setting scientific priorities, guiding institutional strategy, cultivating philanthropic and research partnerships, and stewarding Biosphere 2’s financial, human, and physical resources. The Director provides leadership to the Biosphere 2 executive and scientific team, including the Chief Operating Officer and Research Directors.

The Director will hold a tenured or tenure‑eligible faculty appointment in an appropriate academic unit, with corresponding expectations.

Outstanding U of A benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; U of A/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; retirement plans; access to U of A recreation and cultural activities; and more!

• Establish and communicate a compelling scientific vision and strategic roadmap that positions Biosphere 2 as a trusted, world‑class platform for rigorous, hypothesis‑driven, and externally validated Earth‑systems research, building on its evolution from experimental curiosity to credible, peer‑reviewed science.
• Lead development of a growing and coherent research portfolio that leverages Biosphere 2’s mesoscale, closed and semi‑closed biomes—including the tropical rainforest—to address critical questions in ecosystem resilience, water and carbon cycling, and environmental futures.
• Maintain an active, externally funded research program aligned with Biosphere 2’s capabilities, publish in high‑impact peer‑reviewed venues, and elevate the scholarly visibility and credibility of Biosphere 2 and the University of Arizona.
• Catalyze large, multi‑investigator, and multi‑institutional research campaigns (e.g., ecosystem‑scale drought and rewetting experiments in the tropical rainforest) that result in significant increases in extramural grant funding from federal, philanthropic, and other sources. These campaigns will fully exploit Biosphere 2’s ability to integrate instrumentation, modelling, and field‑style experimentation at ecosystem scale.
• Foster robust collaborations across U of A colleges and with national and international partners, federal agencies, national laboratories, industry, philanthropy, and nonprofits to secure major grants, shared infrastructure investments, and long‑term research programmes. Leverage the capabilities of this unique facility to create novel research programmes outside the current emphasis and scope of Biosphere 2 that will grow its scale and impact.

• Hold a faculty appointment with expectations for a strong research portfolio and contributions to graduate and undergraduate education, including mentoring of students, postdoctoral scholars, and early‑career researchers who use Biosphere 2 as a living laboratory.
• Design and support interdisciplinary educational programmes, field…