Irina Panyushkina

Dr. Irina Panyushkina is a Research Professor and the Member of Graduate Faculty at the University of Arizona, who joined the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in 2002. She is a trained physical geographer and dendrochronologist with a transdisciplinary research focus. Her research addresses Miyake events, Holocene climate variability, Arctic hydrology, radiometric dating, and the evolution of Northern Eurasian civilizations. She has developed and led research projects worldwide, including in the U.S. Great Lakes region, Oregon, Alaska, Central Asia, and Siberia. Her collaborative networks span diverse fields ranging from solar physics and biogeochemistry to archaeology. Dr. Panyushkina is recognized for pioneering applications of novel tree-ring parameters in climate and environmental reconstructions, including wood anatomical indicators sensitive to intra-seasonal temperature variability, permafrost thaw signals preserved in element concentration of tree rings, and tree-ring radiocarbon signatures of extreme cosmic radiation events. Her recent publications provide datasets and analyses that advance understanding of long-term water and energy fluxes from major Siberian river basins into the Arctic Ocean, feedback between Arctic amplification and midlatitude hydrology and agriculture, and the response of radiocarbon production rates to extreme solar eruptions and other high-intensity cosmic ray events affecting Earth's natural and human systems.