Lisa Alvarez-Cohen

Lisa Alvarez-Cohen is the vice provost for academic planning, Fred and Claire Sauer Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for the discovery and application of novel microorganisms and biochemical pathways for microbial degradation of environmental contaminants. She is also a Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology.

Early life and education Alvarez-Cohen studied engineering and applied science at Harvard University and graduated in 1984. She was a postgraduate student at Stanford University, where she earned her master's degree in 1985 and a PhD in 1991.

Research and career Alvarez-Cohen works in environmental microbiology and ecology. She joined the faculty at University of California, Berkeley in 1991, and was the first woman to achieve tenure in Berkeley's Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. She is interested in species that can perform environmentally relevant functions, including studies of biotransformation and the fate of environmental water contaminants. Alvarez-Cohen uses omics based molecular tools to optimise bioremediation. She has served as the diversity director of the Stanford University Engineering Research Center and elected chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate. She was appointed the vice provost for academic planning in July 2018.

Alvarez-Cohen has appeared on NPR and served on the editorial advisory board of Environmental Science & Technology. She has represented the United States at the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering in India, Arlington County, Virginia, and Irvine, California.

Selected publications

Awards and honours

1994 W. M. Keck Foundation Award for Engineering Teaching Excellence 2002 Elected a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award 2018 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Fellow

Personal life Alvarez-Cohen is married to Mike Dean Alvarez Cohen, with whom she has two children, Jason and Ryan.