Bess B. Ward

Bess Ward is an American oceanographer, biogeochemist, microbiologist, and William J. Sinclair Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University.

Ward's studies include marine and global nitrogen cycles, and how marine organisms such as phytoplankton and bacteria influence the nitrogen cycle. Ward was the first woman awarded the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) for her pioneering work on applying molecular methods for nitrogen and methane conversions as well as scaling up organismal biogeochemical rates to whole ecosystem rates.

Education and early career Ward received her Bachelor of Sciences degree in zoology from the Michigan State University in 1976. Ward went on to obtain a Master's degree in biological oceanography from the University of Washington in 1979, followed by her PhD at the same institution in 1982. Ward's early work focused on quantifying the rates of nitrogen transformation performed by bacteria and phytoplankton, and was the editor for a special edition of Marine Chemistry on "Aquatic Nitrogen Cycles" in 1985.

After her PhD, Ward worked as a research biologist and oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, where she also served as the chairperson of the Food Chain Research Group. Ward spends time on research cruises and expeditions, conducting research (and sometimes teaching remotely ) while on the ocean for days to weeks at a time.

Nitrogen cycling Areas in the ocean that are low in oxygen, called oxygen deficient zones (ODZs), are important areas for nitrogen cycling yet only make up about 0.1-0.2% of the total volume of the world ocean. Over one quarter of all nitrogen in the oceans is lost to gaseous nitrogen forms (e.g. N2, N2O) in the ODZs through various nitrogen transformation pathways including denitrification and anammox, however, the rates of nitrogen transformation and type of transformation that is taking place in ODZs remains unclear and subject of much of Ward's research. Ward and her lab developed an isotopic tracer method to measure the rate of N2O reduction in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Ocean and found that incomplete denitrification in ODZs increases N2O accumulation and eventual efflux to the atmosphere. Samuel A. Waxman Honorary Lectureship, Theobald Smith Society, (2014) Procter & Gamble Award, American Society for Microbiology, (2012) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, (2004) Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, (2002) Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, (1999) Who's Who in American University Teachers, (1997) G. Evelyn Hutchinson Medal, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, (1997) Distinguished Visiting Biologist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, March (1996)

Selected publications

Community composition of nitrous oxide related genes and their relationship to nitrogen cycling rates in salt marsh sediments, Frontiers in Microbiology, 9: 170 (2018) Denitrification as the dominant nitrogen loss process in the Arabian Sea., Nature, 461: 78-82 (2009) Methane oxidation and methane fluxes in the ocean surface layer and in deep anoxic waters. Nature, 327: 226-229 (1987)