Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is a soil biogeochemist and political ecologist who is the current nominee to serve as the Director of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy. She is currently Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; University of California, Merced. Her research group works to understand how soil helps regulate the earth's climate.