Dr Margaret D. Lowman is Director of Global Initiatives and Lindsay Chair of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences. Prior to joining the Academy in 2014, Meg was Senior Scientist and Director of Academic Partnerships and Global Initiatives at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and had served as Director of the museum’s Nature Research Center. She was also a Research Professor of Natural Sciences in the College of Sciences at North Carolina State University, where she focused on initiatives involving communicating science to the public. She is regarded as a pioneer in the science of canopy ecology.
For more than 30 years, she has worked tirelessly to map biodiversity in forest canopies and to champion forest conservation around the world, innovating new research methods and conservation strategies along the way. Her designs for hot-air balloons and treetop walkways are now used by scientists and students around the world who have joined Lowman in studying the little-known ecosystems that thrive high above the forest floor. Her creative approaches to fostering sustainability both at home and abroad, including her work with Coptic priests in Ethiopia to preserve some of the country’s last remaining forests, have garnered Lowman a number of international awards.
Lowman holds a PhD in Botany from Sydney University, a MS in Ecology from Aberdeen University, a BA in Biology from Williams College, and a degree in Executive Management from Tuck School of Business. She has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and her first book, Life in the Treetops, received a cover review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
