Pamela Matson

Pamela Matson was appointed Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences in December 2002. She is also the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and a member of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy. Her research focuses on biogeochemical cycling and biosphere-atmosphere interactions in tropical forests and agricultural systems. Together with hydrologists, atmospheric scientists, economists and agronomists, she analyzes the economic drivers and environmental consequences of land use and resource use decisions in developing world agricultural and natural ecosystems, with the objective of identifying practices that are economically and environmentally sustainable. With her students, she also evaluates the response of tropical forests to nitrogen deposition and climate changes.

Pamela joined the Stanford faculty in 1997, following positions as professor at UC Berkeley and research scientist at NASA. She earned her B.S. at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, M.S. at Indiana University, and Ph.D. at Oregon State University. She is currently the chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and the immediate past President of the Ecological Society of America. She serves on the board of trustees of several institutions, including the Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the National Parks Conservation Association, and participates in other national and international committees. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994. In 1995, Dr. Matson was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, and in 1997 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002 she was named the Burton and Deedee McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford.