Mitchell Hall 101
397 Panama Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-2210

matson@stanford.edu
(650) 723-2750 (voice)
(650) 725-6566 (fax)

Research Interests
Biogeochemical cycling and greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forest and agricultural ecosystems, as they change due to natural and anthropogenic disturbances; evaluating the economic, social and environmental causes and consequences of land use change and management; sustainability and vulnerability in human-environment systems.

Pamela Matson is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, a senior fellow at CESP, and the Naramore dean of the School of Earth Sciences.

Her research focuses on the effects of land use changes on biogeochemical cycling and trace gas exchange in tropical forests and agricultural systems. She provided evidence that land-use change and agricultural intensification in the tropics contribute to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and other air and water pollutants. With a multi-disciplinary team of investigators, she analyzed economic drivers and biogeochemical consequences of land-use decisions in developing world agricultural systems, and identified alternative practices that are economically and environmentally viable, and that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On-going interests include integrated analyses of sustainable resource use and vulnerability of people and ecosystems to global changes.

Before coming to Stanford, from 1993-1997, she was a professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. Until 1993, she was a research scientist at NASA/Ames Research Center. She is currently the co-chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and serves on Boards for the World Wildlife Fund US, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Institute for Ecosystem Studies. She is also a science advisory committee member for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and numerous other 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.

She received a BS in biology from the University of Wisconsin in 1975, a MS in environmental science from Indiana University in 1980, and a PhD in forest ecology from Oregon State University in 1983.