Dr. Kelly M Andersen is a tropical forest ecologist who uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining studies of plant ecology and soil biogeochemistry to understand interactions between plant communities and ecosystem processes. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She leads the Team Underground lab group, which examines plant-soil interactions across Southeast Asian tropical forests. She also has ongoing research in the long-term, Amazon Fertilisation Experiment (AFEX), in Brazil, where she is examining whole forest responses to large-scale nitrogen, phosphorus, and base cation additions. Her research interests also include comparing functional traits of the plant community and ecosystem responses to global changes. She received her BS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and PhD from the University of Illinois-Urbana. Her scientific interests in tropical ecology began at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where she spent over 10 years in residence. She has taught ecology in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and mentored students from diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the outdoors with her two dogs and running.