Ruth S. DeFries

Denning Professor of Sustainable Development. Researches the use of various kinds of satellite imagery to map, characterize, and analyze the land covers of the earth as a critical component of the global land-use change and earth system sciences. Developed new methods and metrics for characterizing land cover as continuous fields of vegetation characteristics, and improved understanding of anthropogenic land-change impacts on carbon flux, climate, and ecosystem services. More recently has begun to address coupled human-environment systems, examining the impacts of human activity on tropical forests and forest reserves. Recipient of a MacArthur Award (2007).