Pamela Matson is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist, academic leader, and organizational strategist.
Dean emerita of Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, she is the Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, and leads Stanford’s graduate program on Sustainability Science and Practice.
Her research has addressed a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems, vulnerability and resilience of particular people and places to climate change, and characteristics of science that can contribute to sustainability transitions at scale. Her publications (among around 200) include Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution (2012) and Pursuing Sustainability (2016).
She is chair of the World Wildlife Fund-US board of directors, and chairs or participates in several other advisory boards. She has led and engaged in numerous international science efforts, is an elected member of the US National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received a MacArthur Foundation award and an Einstein Fellowship from the Chinese National Academy, among other awards and honorary doctorates.
The page was updated in May 2024.
