Biography

Harold A. Mooney holds the Paul S. Achilles Professorship in Environmental Biology at Stanford University.  His research focuses on assessing the impacts of global environmental change on terrestrial ecosystems, especially on ecosystem function, productivity and biodiversity. Recent research includes studying the environmental and social consequences of industrialized animal production systems and examining factors that promote the invasion of non-indigenous plant species. He recently co-edited a global analysis of the drivers, consequences, and responses of “Livestock in a Changing Landscape.”

Currently, Mooney is Chair of the Science Committee for DIVERSITAS, an international research program of biodiversity science. Mooney is also member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has published extensively in physiological, ecosystem and global change ecology. He has served as Chair of the U.S. Global Change Committee as well as Secretary General of the International Council for Science and as President of the Ecological Society of America and of the American Institute of Biology. He was Scientific Panel co-Chair for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Mooney earned his Ph.D. in biology from Duke University. In 2015, Duke awarded Mooney an honorary doctorate in science (read more).