Remarkable Women: Cheryl Ann Palm 1954–2024 | Nature Communications

While working as a research assistant in the MBL Ecosystems Center, Cheryl Ann Palm began her career-long focus on tropical deforestation, land use and the global carbon cycle. Photo credit: Pancho Sanchez

By Gillian L. Galford, Alison Rose and Clare Sullivan | for Nature Communications August 22, 2024

Now recognized as a pioneer of sustainability science, Cheryl Ann Palm was a research assistant at the MBL Ecosystems Center early in her career (1979-1983). Gillian L. Galford, first author of this memorial article, earned her Ph.D. in the former Brown-MBL graduate program, where she was co-advised by MBL Distinguished Scientist Jerry Melillo.

Witnessing deforestation in Indonesia in the late 1970s, Cheryl Palm realized that agricultural development would determine the fate of forests. At the time, farming and conservation communities rarely communicated. Cheryl pioneered an emerging field—sustainability science—through her integrative approaches. She linked production, economics, biodiversity, and the ecology of tropical land-use systems, multiple fields whose collaboration was later seen as critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Read rest of the article here.

Source: Remarkable women: Cheryl Ann Palm 1954–2024 | Nature Communications, Earth & Environment