Greg Asner serves on the faculty of the Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, and in the Department of Earth System Science, at Stanford. He is a global ecologist who works at the interface of ecosystem, land use and climate sciences. His research spans the areas of tropical ecology, spatial ecology, biogeochemistry, animal-habitat interactions, remote sensing, and ecosystem responses and feedbacks to climate change. He develops scientific approaches and technologies for investigation and conservation assessments of large ecoregions, including carbon sequestration and emissions, animal habitat, and biological diversity.
Dr. Asner graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering (emphasis: radiation physics) from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1991. He earned masters and doctorate degrees in geography and biology, respectively, from the University of Colorado in 1997. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford until he returned to Colorado as a professor in the geological sciences department. In 2001, he took a position as a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford. Asner has served in numerous national and international posts including the NASA Senior Review Committee, U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Steering Group, U.N. Diversitas Program, NASA-Brazil LBA Steering Committee, and as a Senior Fellow for the U.S. State Department.
Honors and Awards
Fellow, Ecological Society of America, 2016
Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2015
IFOF Honoree in Aviation, 2015
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2014
Association for American Geographers Outstanding Contributions Award, 2014
Nominet Trust 100 for Social Innovation, 2014
Popular Science Magazine’s Brilliant Ten Award, 2007
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2000
NASA Early Career Award, 2000
NASA Group Achievement Award, 1999
NASA Earth System Science Fellowship, 1996-1998
NSF Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions Fellowship, 1996-1998
W.M. Keck Foundation Fellowship Award, 1995-1996
Mabel Duncan Conservation Biology Award, 1994
Asner Laboratory and Curriculum vitae