Lars O. Hedin is the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, the Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a faculty member of the High Meadows Environmental Institute. His research seeks to understand how complex ecosystems function within our biosphere, and how these systems respond to – and sometimes mitigate – changes in our global environment. His laboratory group develops first-principle theories of the assembly and dynamics of these ecosystems, using mathematical approaches and field observations that incorporate biological traits and evolution as central mechanisms.