Caroline Leland

Caroline Leland is a postdoctoral researcher at William Paterson University and is affiliated with the Tree-ring Laboratory at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Caroline is a dendrochronologist (tree-ring scientist) currently focusing on climatic extremes in northwestern North America, but has also studied climatic and ecological conditions of the past in north Asia and the eastern United States. Caroline became interested in tree-ring science as an undergraduate at West Virginia University, where she studied ancient cliff-dwelling Eastern Red Cedar trees to understand past hydroclimatic variability. After college, she continued her tree-ring work as a technician and graduate student at Columbia University and she received her PhD from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2019. For her PhD research, she studied the physiology, morphology, and growth histories of long-lived trees from North America and Asia, some of which were several thousands of years old. After completing her PhD, Caroline continued her research and was a lecturer for the Frontiers of Science core curriculum class at Columbia University (2019-2021). In addition to her paleoclimate research and teaching, she is also interested in using tree rings to date and provenance timbers from noteworthy historical buildings.