Jennifer Pett-Ridge profile

Jennifer Pett-Ridge

Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate

Email

Biography

Research Interests

Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at LLNL, Adjunct Professor at UC Merced and a principal investigator at the UC Berkeley Innovative Genomics Institute. She uses the tools of systems biology and biogeochemistry (stable isotope probing, NanoSIMS imaging, molecular microbial ecology, computational modeling) to study how earth system changes affect microbiome interactions and ecosystem processes. Much of her current work focuses on soil carbon persistence and sustainable agriculture. She leads the Carbon Initiative at LLNL, as well as team projects for the US Department of Energy, including the Microbes Persist Soil Microbiome Scientific Focus Area and Terraforming Soils Energy Earthshot Research Center. In 2023, she led a team of over 70 scientists on Roads to Removal, an assessment of carbon dioxide removal options in the USA. Dr. Pett-Ridge has co-authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications that have collectively received over 16,000 total citations. Pett-Ridge is a Fellow of AAAS and the Ecological Society of America, recipient of a DOE Early Career award (2014), Geochemical Society Endowed Biogeochemistry Medal (2019), Secretary of Energy Achievement Award (2021), and the DOE Office of Science Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2022).

Professional Appointments

  • 2025-present, DOE Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC)
  • 2023-present, Lead Scientist, LLNL Carbon Initiative
  • 2022-present, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, LLNL
  • 2022-present, Investigator, Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley
  • 2018-present, Adjunct Full Professor, Life & Environmental Sciences Department, UC Merced
  • 2018, Visiting Scholar, University of San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador (sabbatical leave)
  • 2017-2023, Group Leader, Environmental Isotope Systems Group, LLNL
  • 2015-present, Senior Staff Scientist, LLNL
  • 2016-present, Guest Affiliate, UC Berkeley, Environmental Science Policy and Management
  • 2012-2017, Adjunct Faculty, Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University
  • 2010-2017, Deputy Group Leader, Isotopic Signatures Group, LLNL
  • 2009- 2015, Career Staff Scientist, LLNL
  • 2008-2009, Flex-term Staff Scientist, LLNL
  • 2005-2008, Postdoctoral Fellow, LLNL
  • 2000-2005, DOE Global Change Education Program graduate student fellow
  • 1998-2000, Graduate Student Researcher, UC Berkeley
  • 1996-1998, Project Manager and Research Technician, USDA Forest Service, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH
  • 1996, Research Technician, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
  • 1995-1996, Project Manager and Research Technician, USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Puerto Rico
  • 1994-1996, Teaching Assistant, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Mentions in Popular Press

Education

  • Ph.D., Soil Microbial Ecology, University of California Berkeley, 2005
  • M.S., Forest Science, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 1996
  • B.A., Biology, Studies in Environment, Yale University, 1994

Publications

2030 1 publication

  • Schmidt, B., J. Stolaroff, S. Baker, N. Ellebracht, W. Kirkendall, A. Simon, G. Peridas, E. Slessarev, J. Pett-Ridge, S. Pang, M. Langholtz and R. Aines, Carbon Negative by 2030: CO2 removal options for an early corporate buyer February, 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States).

2025 7 publications

  • Slessarev, E., J. Pett-Ridge, K. Min, A.A. Berhe, S. Das, R.D. Jackson, J.D. Jastrow, M. Kan, S. Kumar, T. Longbottom, K.J. McFarlane, E. Oerter, B.K. Richards, G.P. Robertson, G. Sanford, E.E. Nuccio. Tracing the effects of a deeply rooted grass, Panicum virgatum, on soil organic carbon cycling in a range of environments across the USA. bioRxivhttps://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.01.668182 Earth Futures (in review)
  • Trubl, G., S. Roux, M. Kellom, D. Vyshenska, A. Tomatsu, K. Singh, J. A. Kimbrel, E. Eloe-Fadrosh, R. R. Malmstrom, J. Pett-Ridge, S.J. Blazewicz. Tracking persistence and dynamics of active soil viruses with SIP-Viromics. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.25.655894 mSystems (in review)
  • Sokol, N.W., M.M. Foley, S.J. Blazewicz, N. DiDonato, K. Estera-Molina, M. Firestone, A. Greenlon, B.A. Hungate, W. Kew, L. Paša-Tolić, E. Slessarev, J. Pett-Ridge. Drought reduces formation, but enhances persistence, of mineral-associated organic matter in a semi-arid grassland soil. bioRxivhttps://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.23.655838 Global Change Biology (in review)
  • Schwartz, E., M. Hayer, R.L. Mau, K. Nantz, B.A. Hungate, S. Blazewicz, G.Allen, E. Morrisey, B. Tripathi, J. Pett-Ridge. Internal DNA standards for isopycnic centrifugation of environmental DNA in quantitative stable isotope probing. bioRxivhttps://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.27.661829, Applied and Environmental Microbiology (in review)
  • Fitzpatrick, R., B. Hungate, M. Power, M. Foley, T. Samo, E. Schwarz, M. Hayer, P.K. Weber, J. Pett-Ridge, J. Marks. Composition, growth, succession, and function in the Cladophora microbiome: insights from quantitative Stable Isotope Probing (qSIP) and NanoSIMS imaging. bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.12.652736 Environmental Microbiology(in review)
  • Foley, M., N. Sokol, B. Stone, S. Blazewicz, K. Estera-Molina, A. Greenlon, M. Hayer, J. Kimbrel, J. Pett-Ridge, B. Hungate. Specialist-generalist trade-offs in microbial growth rates across soil habitats. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.20.655198 mBio (in response to review)
  • Mayer, A., J. Dumortier, Z. Hausfather, J. Pett-Ridge, E. Slessarev. Cost of cooling: The value of reversible carbon storage in a zero-emissions world. CDRxiv. https://doi.org/10.70212/cdrxiv.2025348.v1. Environmental Science & Technology Manuscript ID: es-2025-05767s (in response to review)

2024 2 publications

  • Penev, P.I., K. Estera-Molina, G.M. Allen, R. Sachdeva, S. Lei, K.K. Law, J. Hoff, S.J. Blazewicz, J. Pett-Ridge, J.F. Banfield. The active subset of grassland soil microbiomes changes with soil depth, water availability and prominently features predatory bacteria and episymbionts bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.19.629468 (in review)
  • Trubl, Gareth, Ikaia Leleiwi, Ashley Campbell, Jeffrey A. Kimbrel, Amrita Bhattacharyya, Robert Riley, Rex Malstrom, Steven J. Blazewicz, Jennifer Pett-Ridge. Soil redox conditions drive virus-host community dynamics and plant biomass degradation in tropical rainforest soils. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.13.612973. Microbiome(in review)

2023 2 publications

  • Pett-Ridge, Jennifer, Hamed Ziad Ammar, Alvina Aui, Mark Ashton, Sarah E. Baker, Bruno Basso, Mark Bradford, Alexander P. Bump, Ingrid Busch, Edna Rodriguez Calzado, Jackson W. Chirigotis, Nicolas Clauser, Sinéad Crotty, Nicholas Dahl, Tao Dai, Mark Ducey, Jerome Dumortier, Nathan C. Ellebracht, Ramon Gil Egui, Ames Fowler, Katerina Georgiou, Diamantoula Giannopoulos, Hannah Goldstein, Thomas Harris. Dermot Hayes, Chad Hellwinckel, Alina Ho, Mu Hong, Susan Hovorka, Elwin Hunter-Sellars, Whitney Kirkendall, Sara Kuebbing, Matthew Langholtz, Mark Layer, Ian Lee, Reid Lewis, Wenqin Li, Weier Liu, Jimena Terrazas Lozano, Abby Lunstrum, Allegra C. Mayer, Kimberley K. Mayfield, Wilson McNeil, Peter Nico, Anastasia O’Rourke, Simon H. Pang, Keith Paustian, George Peridas, Helene Pilorge, Maxwell Pisciotta, Lydia Price, Peter Psarras, G. Philip Robertson, William Joe Sagues, Daniel L. Sanchez, Corinne D. Scown, Briana Mordick Schmidt, Eric W. Slessarev, Noah Sokol, Alexander J. Stanley, Amy Swan, Crystal Toureene, Andrew A. Wong, Mark Mba Wright, Yuan Yao, Bingquan Zhang, Yao Zhang, and Roger D. Aines. Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dec 2023, https://doi.org/10.2172/2301853
  • (multi-author) Soil Biodiversity in California Agriculture: Framework and Indicators for Soil Health Assessment, Prepared by the Belowground Biodiversity Advisory Committee (BBAC) For the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), July 2023

2022 3 publications

  • (multi-author) Microbes in Models: Integrating Microbes into Earth System Models for Understanding Climate Change: Report on an American Academy of Microbiology Virtual Colloquium held on Dec. 6 and 8, 2022. Washington (DC): American Society for Microbiology; 2023. https://asm.org/Reports/Microbes-in-Models-Integrating-Microbes-into-Earth
  • (multi-author) BERAC. 2022. U.S. Scientific Leadership Addressing Energy, Ecosystems, Climate, and Sustainable Prosperity: Report from the BERAC Subcommittee on International Benchmarking, DOE/SC-0208. M. McCann and P. Reed, eds. Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee. DOI:10.2172/1895129.
  • Pett-Ridge, J., M. Ashton, S. E. Baker, B. Basso, M. Bradford, H. Breunig, A. Bump, I. Busch, E. Rodriguez Calzado, J. W. Chirigotis, M. Ducey, J. Dumortier, N. C. Ellebracht, R. Gil Egui, A. Fowler, K. Georgiou, H. Goldstein, D. Hayes, C. Hellwinckel, S. Hovorka, E. Hunter-Sellars, W. Kirkendall, S. Kuebbing, P. Lamers, M. Langholtz, M. Layer, R. Lewis, W. Li, A. Mayer, K. K. Mayfield, P. Nico, S. H. Pang, K. Paustian, G. Peridas, H. Pilorge, S. Ponomareva, L. Price, P. Psarras, G. P. Robertson, J. W. Sagues, D. Sanchez, C. Scown, B. M. Schmidt, E. W. Slessarev, A. J. Stanley, A. Swan, C. Toureene, A. A. Wong, E. Woods, M. Mba Wright, Y. Zhang, R. D. Aines, Initial Considerations for Large-Scale Carbon Removal in the United States: Description of Methods, Feedstocks, and Constraints, March, 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

2020 1 publication

  • Sarah E. Baker, Joshuah K. Stolaroff, George Peridas, Simon H. Pang, Hannah M. Goldstein, Felicia R. Lucci, Wenqin Li, Eric W. Slessarev, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Frederick J. Ryerson, Jeff L. Wagoner, Whitney Kirkendall, Roger D. Aines, Daniel L. Sanchez, Bodie Cabiyo, Joffre Baker, Sean McCoy, Sam Uden, Ron Runnebaum, Jennifer Wilcox, Peter C. Psarras, Hélène Pilorgé, Noah McQueen, Daniel Maynard, Colin McCormick, Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California, January, 2020, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory https://doi.org/10.2172/1597217

2018 2 publications

  • Pett-Ridge, J. (2018) Deeply rooted: evaluating plant rooting depth as a means for enhanced soil carbon sequestration. Conference paper: International Conference on Negative CO2 Emissions Gothenburg, Sweden.
  • (multi-author) Building a New Carbon Economy: An Innovation Plan, September 2018. Carbon 180 (formerly Center for Carbon Removal)

2017 2 publications

  • (multi-author) Grand Challenges Workshop Report, March 2017 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC)
  • (multi-contributor) “Microbes and Climate Change,” April, 2017, American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and American Geophysical Union (AGU)

2016 2 publications

  • (multi-author) Technologies for Characterizing Molecules to Mesoscale Workshop Report, Sept 2016 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research
  • (multi-author) Microbes and Climate Change, report on an American Academy of Microbiology and American Geophysical Union Colloquium held in Washington, DC, March 2016

2015 1 publication

  • Groffman, P.M., AB Box, PJ Bohlen, L. Pardo, J. Pett-Ridge et al. 2015. Long-term measurements of microbial biomass and activity at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, 1994 – present. Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study

2014 1 publication

  • Robertson, G.P, J. Pett-Ridge, M. Udvardi. U.S. DOE. 2014. Research for Sustainable Bioenergy: Linking Genomic and Ecosystem Sciences, Workshop Report, DOE/SC-0167. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science

Other 7 publications

  • Terrer, C.*, E.C. Fricke*, S. Bell, R. Jia, S. Cook-Patton, S. Ren, M.E. Macfarlane, J. Sanderman, A.F.A. Pellegrini, C.J. Nolan, R.B. Jackson, J. Pett-Ridge, J.B. Yu, S. Cerasoli, Y. Zou, P. Ciais, Y. Xu, H. Yin, W. Jiao, A. Rosel, C. Folberth, C. Schillaci, P. Dutt, C. Barriocana, D. Gol, C. Cruz, A.C. Koberle. Soils match biomass carbon gains across restored farmlands. Nature (in review)
  • Calabrese, S., S. Sadik Tulip, S. Perez Castro, A. Thompson, J. Pett-Ridge, Z. Nikolov. Fluxes vs. pools: connecting temperature dependence and sensitivity of soil carbon dynamics across timescales Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences (in review)
  • Hedlund, B.P, T. Alvarado, T.R. Murphy, A. Torres, A.M. Blocker, C.O. Seymour, D. Lai, X. Mayali, A. Muok, R. Xiao, E. Levon, J.T. Phoenix, K. Mazdra, T. Sons, J. Ledesma, J. Jiries, A. Manriquez, A. Vamvakas, A. Rivera Martinez, A. Camacho, Z. Owerkowicz, J. Lacy, P.K. Weber, A. Briegel, D.P. Moser, J. Pett-Ridge, J.A. Dodsworth, and S.D. Hamilton-Brehm. Folate auxotrophy in Atribacterota reveals pervasive microbialcultivation problem.Nature Microbiology (in review)
  • Ye, Z., Y. Yang, J. Kuang, C.T. Bates, A. Escalas, D. Ning, L. Wu, S. Liu, S. Deng, J. Lei, X. Chen, J. Pett-Ridge, M. Saha, K. Craven, M. Firestone, and J. Zhou. Bioenergy cropping reduces spatiotemporal scaling of soil bacterial biodiversity. PNAS(in review)
  • Lai*, D., D. Mosier, M. Palmer, X. Mayali, J. Johnston, W. Saldivar, J.K. Covington, J.-Y. Jiao, R. Murali, C.O. Seymour, L. Liu, Z.-S. Hua, W.-J. Li, P.K. Weber, J. Pett-Ridge, D.R. Colman, E.S. Boyd, T. Nunoura, J.A. Dodsworth* and B.P. Hedlund. Branched-chain amino acid specialization drove diversification within Calditenuaceae (Caldarchaeia) and enables their cultivation. Nature Communications(in review)
  • Chuckran, P. F., S. J. Blazewicz, J. Ceja-Navarro, J. Pett-Ridge, E. Schwartz, P. Dijkstra. Unique relationships between gene traits and transcriptional response under growth, starvation, and extreme heat in an agricultural soil. PeerJ (in response to review).
  • Ceja-Navarro, J.A., P. Kosina, D. Patel, G. Genco, A. Byer, N. Xiao, D. Ning, K.H. Wang, S.E. Celniker, J. Zhou, P. Dijkstra, B.A. Hungate, J. Pett-Ridge,E.L. Brodie. Cross-domain microbial network resilience increases in response to ecosystem retrogression Microbiological Research(in response to review)

Awards

  • 2025, Elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

  • 2025, Elected to Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame

  • 2024, LLNL Global Security Gold Award for “Roads to Removal” report

  • 2024, Elected Fellow of Ecological Society of America

  • 2023, Deborah A. Neher Career Award Soil Ecology Section-Ecological Society of America

  • 2023, Elected Member at Large, Soil Ecology Society

  • 2022, Promoted to Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff

  • 2022, DOE Office of Science Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award

  • 2021, DOE Secretary of Energy Achievement Award, for “Getting to Neutral” report

  • 2019, Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecture, Geochemical Society, Goldschmidt conference

  • 2018, Elected Secretary, AGU Biogeosciences Section

  • 2017, Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, Geophysical Research Letters

  • 2015, LLNL Early/Mid-Career Recognition Award

  • 2015, LLNL Director’s Science and Technology Award

  • 2014, DOE Early Career Research Program Fellowship

  • 2014, Elected to Environmental & Molecular Sciences Laboratory User Executive Committee

  • 2013, Best Talk, Biogeosciences Section, AGU Annual Meeting

  • 2009, International Society for Microbial Ecology, Journal Cover Contest

  • 2000-2004, Graduate Fellowship, DOE Global Change Education Program

Additional info

Service

  1. Session Convener and Conference Organizer
  • Science Committee, 2022 Goldschmidt Conference (2021-2022)
  • Organizer, Switchgrass Microbiome meeting, UC Berkeley (April, 2019)
  • “Plants-microbes-minerals: interactions that drive soil organic matter cycling”, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco (Dec, 2019)
  • “How Spatial and Temporal Redox Dynamics Shape Biogeochemistry in Soils and Sediments Across Scales” Goldschmidt, Paris (July, 2017)
  • “Linking Microbial Identity and Activity with NanoSIMS”, International Society of Microbial Ecology Meeting, Cairns, Australia (Aug, 2008)
  1. Journal Editor and Leadership Positions:
  • Advisory Board, CDRXIV (2024-present)
  • Editor, American Society for Microbiology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews “MMBR” (2022-present)
  • Special Topic Editor, Soil Biology & Biochemistry “Soil virus ecology: how viral infection shapes microbial communities and biogeochemical processes” (2023-present)
  • Senior Editor, ISME Communications (2020-2024)
  1. Leadership Positions:
  • Guest Editor, Soil Biology and Biochemistry special issue on “Soil Viruses”
  • Scientific Advisory Board, Andes Bio (2024-present)
  • Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), Joint Genome Institute (2022-present)
  • Scientific Advisory Board, Salk Institute Harnessing Plant Initiative (2022-present)
  • Chair: External Advisory Board, NSF Science & Technology Center, Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet (C-CoMP). (2022-present)
  • Belowground Biodiversity Advisory Committee (BBAC), (2022-2023)
  • USA Senior Ambassador, International Society for Microbial Ecology (2019-present)
  • Committee Member, Goldschmidt Biogeochemistry Medal award committee (2020-2022)
  • Committee Member, AGU Biogeosciences Section Fellows committee (2018-2020)
  • Chair, SLAC Biosciences Division Scientific Advisory Committee (2015)
  1. Elected Service
  • At Large Member, Soil Ecology Society (2023-2025)
  • Secretary, Biogeosciences Section, American Geophysical Union (2018-2021)
  • User Executive Committee, Environmental and Molecular Sciences Lab, (2013-2017)
  • Vice Chair, Soil Ecology Section, Ecological Society of America (2006-2009)

Professional Affiliations

  • Ecological Society of America (Vice Chair for the Soil Ecology section 2006-2009)
  • American Geophysical Union (Secretary for Biogeosciences Section, 2018-2020)
  • International Society of Microbial Ecology (currently Senior Ambassador for USA)
  • American Society of Microbiology
  • Geochemical Society
  • AAAS
  • Soil Ecology Society (Member at Large, 2023-present)
  • European Association of Geochemistry
  • Applied Microbiology International
  • Earth Science Women’s Network
  • 500 Women Scientists

Ten Most Important Scientific Talks

  1. Closing Plenary: Rhizosphere 6 Meeting. The Future of Rhizosphere Research. Edinburgh, UK, June 19, 2025
  2. National Center for Soil Ecology Symposium on Climate-Friendly Agricultural Soils, “Farming Carbon: Harnessing Plant Roots, Microbial Ecophysiology, and Soil Minerals to Accelerate Soil-Based Carbon Drawdown”, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 10, 2025
  3. International Microbiome Symposium, IIT, “Pursuing Wild Microbes: Microbiome Interactions and Ecophysiological Traits that Shape the Persistence of Soil Carbon”, Chennai India, Feb 19, 2025
  4. UC Berkeley Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture in Soil Science, “The Music of Soil: Environmental drivers, ecophysiological traits and microbiome interactions that shape the persistence of soil carbon” Berkeley, CA, Nov 7, 2024
  5. Plenary talk: Science Summit for Energy Earthshot Innovation, Roads to Removal: A Comprehensive Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Removal Options in the United States, Washington DC, Sept 2024
  6. Distinguished Karling Lecture: Mycological Society of America. Fungi and Friends: An Expanded View of Fungal-Bacterial Interactions and Biogeochemical Effects in the Mycorrhizal Hyphosphere. Flagstaff, AZ, July 2023
  7. Invited Lecture: NanoSIMS Workshop, National Physical Laboratory. Analyses on the edge of our comfort zone: NanoSIMS studies of soil organic matter, microbial interactions and viruses 2022 Teddington, UK, Oct 2022
  8. Keynote lecture: Joint Annual Meeting of the Soil Science Societies of Germany and Switzerland. How Phage and Fauna Shape the Movement of Root Carbon Through Microbial Pathways, Bern Switzerland, 8/19
  9. Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecture, Goldschmidt Meeting. Impacts of Dynamic Soil Redox on Biogeochemical Transformations and Soil Microbiomes, Barcelona, Spain, August 2019
  10. Invited talk: Kirkham Meeting. Carbon Transformations in The Rhizosphere: The Critical Role of Microbial Functional Capacity, Israel, April 2016
Jennifer Pett-Ridge | People