Lucy Hutyra

Lucy Hutyra is Chair and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Boston University. Her areas of specialization include urban climate and biogeochemistry, remote sensing, and vegetation ecology. Trained as a physical scientist, over the years Professor Hutyra's research has become ever more focused on the climate and ecology of cities, working at the science-policy interface. She is a national leader on measuring and modeling urban greenhouse gas fluxes and advancing our understanding of carbon cycling in cities.

Professor Hutyra has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in edited volumes, including serving as a contributing author on the forthcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Working Group III Mitigation of Climate Change chapter on Urban and Systems and Other Settlements. She was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2023, was a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a National Academy of Science Kavli Fellow, and currently serves on the NASA Earth Science Federal Advisory Committee.

Beyond scholarly research, Hutyra has focused extensively on graduate education, training students how to apply basic research to advance the livability of our communities. Professor Hutyra also serves as the Director of the BU Biogeosciences Program and the Associate Director for the BU URBAN interdisciplinary doctoral program.

Professor Hutyra received his BA in Forest Ecology and Management from the University of Washington and her PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences from Harvard University.