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Meet Pamela Templer

Pamela Templer, PhD, is an ecosystem ecologist and professor in the department of Biology at Boston University who focuses on plant-microbial interactions and their effects on carbon exchange and nutrient cycling. She is interested in how human activities impact ecosystems through urbanization, air pollution, and climate change. A native of Los Angeles, California, Pam originally majored in music before finding her true passion in the ecology of forest ecosystems. She earned her PhD from Cornell University under the direction of Todd Dawson and Stuart Findlay and completed a postdoc position at the University of California, Berkeley.

Now at Boston University, Pam teaches classes in the Department of Biology and in interdisciplinary programs across a range of topics, including ecology, the biology of global change, forest ecology, and biogeoscience. She is director of the PhD program in biogeoscience, director of the NSF-funded research traineeship (NRT) BU URBAN Graduate Program, and co-director of BU’s Stable Isotope Laboratory. She also regularly contributes to media reports on ecology and climate change.

Pam’s honors include her selection as an ESA Fellow in 2019. She is also an elected member of the Scientific Coordinating Committee at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest since 2010, and received the Metcalf Award for excellence in teaching at BU in 2015. She has also held a CAREER grant from NSF from 2012-2017. She was elected as ESA’s Vice President for Education and Human Resources in 2018 and has since served in that capacity on a variety of projects, including as chair of ESA’s Committee on Diversity and Education.

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