Margaret Palmer

Margaret Palmer, the Executive Director of SeSynC, is a Professor of Entomology at the University of Maryland with a joint appointment at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. She has more than 130 publications on the restoration and ecosystem dynamics of streams and rivers. She teaches several courses on stream restoration including one for engineers, co-edited the SER book Foundations of Restoration Ecology, and works closely with managers and policy makers to translate research to practice. As lead scientist for the National River Restoration Science Synthesis project, she spearheaded the development of the first comprehensive database on river and stream restoration in the U.S. She manages a large research group and much of her current research is focused on the development of biophysical production functions for freshwater ecosystem services in a restoration context. This involves addressing questions such as: can freshwater ecosystem services be restored or created where they did not previously exist? She is collaborating with a team of social scientists who focus on the perception and valuation of ecosystem services. She is chair of the international freshwater Diversitas committee, serves on multiple editorial and science advisory boards, has been honored as an AAAS Fellow, an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow, a Lilly Fellow, a Distinguished Scholar Teacher, an Ecological Society of America Distinguished Service Award, and a University of Maryland Board of Regents Distinguished Faculty Award. Palmer graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S.Biology from Emory University in 1977 and from the University of South Carolina in 1983 with a PhD in Coastal Oceanography.