Ruth DeFries

Ruth DeFries (born 1957) is an environmental geographer who specializes in the use of remote sensing to study Earth's habitability under the influence of human activities, such as deforestation, [cite web|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7451676_ITM|title=Maryland-Led Research Revises Estimates of Tropical Deforestation.|date=2002-10-14|publisher=Ascribe Higher Education News Service|accessdate=2008-09-16] [cite web|url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010605072649.htm|title=An Improved Method For Monitoring National And Global Deforestation|date=2001-06-05|publisher=ScienceDaily|accessdate=2008-09-16] [cite web|url=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920092900.htm|title=Growth In Amazon Cropland May Impact Climate And Deforestation Patterns|date=2006-09-22|publisher=ScienceDaily|accessdate=2008-09-16] that influence regulating biophysical and biogeochemical processes.cite web|url=http://www.earth.columbia.edu/ac/bios/defries.html|title=Ruth DeFries biography|publisher=The Earth Institute, Columbia University|accessdate=2008-09-16] She was one of 24 recipients of the 2007 MacArthur Fellowship, [cite web|url=http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={FACCE0E3-8520-4752-9B5D-0F05779C3340}&notoc=1|title=MacArthur Fellows 2007|publisher=The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation|accessdate=2008-09-16] [cite web|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32968352_ITM|title='Genius' rewarded: Hopkins physician, UM geographer are among 24 awarded $500,000 MacArthur grants for research.|date=2007-09-25|publisher=Baltimore Sun|accessdate=2008-09-16] and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2006. [cite web|url=http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1277|title=A Conversation with UM's Ruth DeFries, Newly Elected to the National Academy of Sciences|publisher=University of Maryland|accessdate=2008-09-16]

DeFries received her Ph.D. in 1980 from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and her B.A. in Earth Science in 1976 from Washington University. DeFries currently holds the Denning Family Chair in Sustainable Development in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, at Columbia University as well as a professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park where she has joint appointments in the Department of Geography and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center.

References

External links

* [http://www.glue.umd.edu/~rdefries/homepage/ Homepage at University of Maryland]