biology

Pamela Matson

Pamela Matson is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pamela Matson rather than just read about it. In short: Pamela Anne Matson (born 1953) is an American scientist and professor. From 2002 - 2017 she was the dean of the Stanford University School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

Key takeaways

Pamela Matson belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pamela Matson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pamela Matson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pamela Anne Matson (born 1953) is an American scientist and professor. From 2002 - 2017 she was the dean of the Stanford University School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. She also previously worked at NASA and at the University of California, Berkeley. Matson is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies (Emerita) at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a Senior Fellow (Emerita) at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Matson is a winner of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the "genius grant," and is considered to be a "pioneer in the field of environmental science." She was appointed to the "Einstein Professorship" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. She received an honorary doctorate from McGill University in 2017. She is married to fellow scientist Peter Vitousek.

Early life and education Pamela Matson grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin. She studied biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. After graduation, Matson started a career that would center on environmental issues. She completed her M.S. from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at the Indiana University, her PhD in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University, and did postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina.

Work Matson's first job was at the NASA Ames Research Center where she studied the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest with emphasis on the way deforestation and pollution affected the environment. After her time with NASA, Matson joined the Environmental Science Policy Management Program at the University of California, Berkeley, where she collaborated in trying to promote a community of academics interested in environmental issues. Matson eventually became the dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford. There she started a sustainability roundtable to bring people together to discuss environmental issues. Matson was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, and in 1997 was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002, she was named the Burton and Deedee McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford. The "Matson Sustainability Science Research Laboratory" at Stanford is named after her. She was the editor of the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. from 2003 to 2008.

Honors Ames Associate Fellow (1992) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992) NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1993) United States National Academy of Sciences (1994) MacArthur Fellowship (1995–2000) University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Distinguished Alumni Award (1996) Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997) Oregon State University Distinguished Alumni Award (1998) McMurtrey Fellow for Undergraduate Education

References

External links Pamela Matson's profile Matson Sustainability Science Research Laboratory

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pamela Matson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pamela Matson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pamela Matson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pamela Matson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pamela Matson

In research: Pamela Matson appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pamela Matson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pamela Matson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, 20th-century American earth scientists, 21st-century American earth scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pamela Matson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Pamela Matson” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Pamela Matson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pamela Matson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pamela Matson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pamela Matson in simple terms?

Pamela Anne Matson (born 1953) is an American scientist and professor. From 2002 - 2017 she was the dean of the Stanford University School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

Why does Pamela Matson matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pamela Matson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pamela Matson.