Pamela Anne Matson

Dr. Pamela Anne Matson is the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies at Stanford University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Matson is an interdisciplinary Earth scientist who works to reconcile the needs of people and the planet in the 21st century. Her research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including the sustainability of agricultural systems and the vulnerability of particular people and places to climate change. With multidisciplinary teams of researchers, managers and decision makers, she has worked to develop agricultural approaches that reduce environmental impacts while maintaining livelihoods and human well-being. At Stanford, she is also a leader of the Leopold Leadership Program, which provides leadership and communications training to environmental scientists and analysts. Matson is the author of numerous scientific publications and books, including Seeds of Sustainability, summarizing 15 years of research and action in the ecosystems of Mexico, and Pursuing Sustainability, a Short Primer on the Science and Practice. She was the founding co-chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, a past president of the Ecological Society of America, past lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and was a member of the science leadership committee for the International Geosphere-Atmosphere Programme. Among her accolades, she is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Ecological Society of America, the British Ecological Society, and the California Academy of Sciences in addition to her American Academy of Arts and Science membership.